The controversy surrounding a local company's bid to erect a 90-foot, self-supporting cellular tower near state Highway 75 at Galena Summit hasn't let up.
Jennifer Campbell, co-owner of Idaho Tower Co., a Ketchum-based business seeking to build a camouflaged cell tower on the isolated ridgetop northwest of Ketchum, made an informal presentation before the Blaine County Commission on Tuesday to explain why she thinks the project should proceed. The remote area inside the 756,000-acre Sawtooth National Recreation Area lacks cell coverage.
The county commissioners do not have the ultimate say on whether the tower should be built.
"The Forest Service has jurisdiction," Blaine County Commissioner Larry Schoen reminded everyone.
Last July, Sawtooth National Forest Supervisor Jane Kollmeyer denied the proposed "stealth" tower, citing the "substantial impairment" the project would produce on the scenic ridgetop. However, a regional official with the U.S. Forest Service reversed Kollmeyer's decision. Whether the about-face will breathe new life into Idaho Tower's quest remains to be seen.
According to the Sawtooth National Forest, the decision was reversed because of a failure to provide adequate notice and opportunity for public comment regarding Kollmeyer's decision to amend visual quality standards for the Galena Summit area.
"We missed a step in the process and will work to remedy that situation," Kollmeyer said.
Backers of the facility have consistently claimed that having cell coverage in the area would add a measure of safety to the traveling public in the rural area marking the divide between the Big Wood and Salmon river drainages. Idaho Tower Co. has been working on the Galena Summit cell tower application for about eight years.
According to Campbell, the application process has stretched on so long that it's gone from being a potentially profitable venture to simply being about public safety. She said even the Idaho Bureau of Homeland Security has become interested in the issue.
"They feel remote towns should have this," she said.
Balloon tests conducted by Idaho Tower have shown that the estimated 40 feet by which the tower would surpass surrounding trees would not impact Galena Summit, a popular wintertime destination for backcountry skiers.
"That seems to be the biggest bone of contention," she said.
Following Campbell's informal presentation on Tuesday, the commissioners called for public comment. Of those who spoke out who aren't connected to Idaho Tower Co., the response to the proposed tower was noticeably in opposition. Just one individual, former County Commissioner Len Harlig, spoke in favor of the tower due to safety concerns.
For everyone else who spoke out during the meeting, the impacts to the scenery of the area seem to outweigh any safety benefits the tower may create. They point out that because of the undulating nature of the terrain, the single tower would not provide complete coverage to the Galena Summit and upper Big Wood area, which even the tower's backers concede.
Scott Phillips, a member of the local Sawtooth group of the Sierra Club and a former Forest Service land manager, said the SNRA is considering tapping into an existing underground phone to create call-in boxes next to the highway. He said these phone boxes, which wouldn't be as obtrusive as a cellular tower, would provide a similar level of safety to travelers passing over Galena Summit.
"This is on the drawing board," he said.
One such emergency call-in box could be placed at the Galena Overlook on the north side of Galena Summit, which is being eyed for reconstruction as early as next summer, SNRA area ranger Sara Baldwin said.
Phillips said another concern is the ongoing die-offs of whitebark pine trees that are eliminating much of the forest where the tower would be built. He said that could make the structure even more visible.
"Those whitebark pine may be gone," he said.
Near the end of the discussion, Blaine County Commissioner Tom Bowman said the commission does support having cellular coverage at Galena Summit, but that "it's a matter of the height of it."
Second cell tower eyed for SNRA
Jen Campbell, co-owner of Ketchum-based Idaho Tower Co., said Tuesday that her company is also looking at a location near the Sawtooth National Recreation Area headquarters about five miles north of Ketchum as the site for a possible cellular tower. Campbell was in Hailey to speak to the Blaine County Commission about her company's desire to construct a different 90-foot cellular tower at Galena Summit, which has been controversial to some outdoorspeople who recreate there and was rejected by a Sawtooth National Forest official earlier this year.
Though no application has been submitted for the cellular tower eyed for the SNRA headquarters site, Campbell said the structure is being considered as a way to create better cellular coverage in the more far-flung residential areas that stretch north of Ketchum. She said the tower is not part of a larger plan to establish blanket cellular coverage stretching from Ketchum to Galena Summit, which some have cited as their reason for opposing the isolated Galena Summit cell tower. Opponents have alleged that the tower could open the floodgates to further cellular development in the upper Big Wood River drainage northwest of Ketchum.
