Virginia
Three new 199-foot monopoles are causing quite a stir in Sperryville. One of the towers, which was erected just last week by Community Wireless Structures (CWS), was painted blue — which sticks out sorely against the backdrop of Shenandoah National Park, reported the Rapp News.
“I guess my question on the tower is it does not appear to me to be blue,” remarked Piedmont District Supervisor Christine Smith. “Is that the final color?”
Rappahannock County Administrator Garrey W. Curry replied, “Yeah, it’s Sky Blue. It looks very Sky White,” said Smith.
According to Curry, the county’s original approval of the steel tower allows for its color to be changed without holding any public hearings. “I have opened the discussion with CWS as to how we would go about doing that,” the administrator revealed.
Painting a tall tower after it’s just gone up could prove to be a difficult and expensive proposition, reported the News. It was the county that requested CWS paint the tower blue in the first place — to appease its closest neighbors.
According to CWS representative Hope McCreary, “We suggested [originally] that it be galvanized steel. That is probably the best solution from all perspectives because over time it dulls and typically fades from view. And there was a discussion at the hearing that light blue might be good from certain perspectives and brown-green might be good from others. It all depends where you’re looking at it.”
“There’s no perfect solution,” McCreary added. “The light blue I can tell you will dull and fade over time — it will not be as bright as it is right now, and that will help. Everything weathers.”
CWS also wants to erect two lattice cell towers along the sparsely populated Sperryville Pike-Route 522 corridor where balloon tests were recently administered.
April 12, 2019
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