At press time, the Town of Tofte was once again considering placement of a cell phone tower in the township boundaries. An anticipated addendum to the joint Tofte Township and Birch Grove Foundation meeting at Birch Grove on Tuesday, December 5 did not transpire, as Shane Begly of Minnesota Towers, Inc. was not able to make that meeting. He rescheduled an appearance before the town board at its Thursday, December 8 meeting at the Tofte Town Hall.
Tofte Town Clerk Barb Gervais said Begly had sent an e-mail letting the township know that he had looked at two potential properties, currently owned by Bluefin Bay, near the Tofte Cemetery. The board believed that Bluefin Bay manager Dennis Rysdahl would be interested in selling land to the township to allow the tower to be erected.
Gervais said Begly had written that AT&T would be the primary tenant on the proposed tower but that it could be a multi-tenant tower.
At the December 5 meeting, the board discussed the pros and cons of the two locations but noted that either site was further from any residences than the previous proposal, which sited the tower in the township cemetery.
The board also discussed tower heights and agreed that they still wanted a “stealth tower”—a 130 – 140-foot tower, which is small enough that no aviation warning lights or guy wires need to be used. This is what was proposed for the Tofte cemetery location earlier this year but met with opposition because it would be too intrusive in the historic cemetery.
Wherever a cell phone tower and related structures will be placed, the proposal must meet with approval of the Tofte Design Review Board and then the Cook County Planning & Zoning Commission.
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