Ha Ha Tonka State Park at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri is a place of scenic views and a home for migratory birds. However, residents of this area are unhappy about a new visitor, an estimated 400-foot-tall AT&T tower that was constructed a month ago.
Resident Lynne Hayes, who lives across a cove near the park’s entrance, told Lake News Online that her home was one of “natural, unmarred beauty.” Now she said she sees a tower that “sticks straight out above the tree line and emits strobe light flashes that reflect off the water into dozens of homes and condos in the area.”
Resident Bruce Blair said, “It just seems a little odd for an agency that’s for preserving the pristine beauty of the area would do something like that to sacrifice the view of hundreds of thousands in order to preserve a view from the state park.”
A spokeswoman for Missouri State Parks told Lake News Online in an email that they were notified that AT&T wanted a tower at that location, but the park system and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service objected to the location. Camden County officials said that they didn’t know about the construction. Planning and Zoning Administrator Kim Willey told the news site that “her office was still trying to get to the bottom of it, but it doesn’t appear that Missouri State Parks has filed an application for a construction permit.”
Missouri State Parks went on record stating that it “collaborated on site selections to find a less obtrusive location for a tower that would have less impact on migratory bird populations within the park.”
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