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County to continue debate over tower
By TRAVIS
JAMES TRITTEN
Citizen Staff
Writer
MARATHON — The
renewed debate over a proposed 970-foot communications tower on Cudjoe
Key will continue, county commissioners decided Wednesday, despite
requests from neighbors to reject the project outright.
Allowing the
tower — a structure about as tall as the Eiffel Tower — could eliminate
the need for the Coast Guard to build multiple 500-foot towers across
the Middle Keys for a communications upgrade, said David Paul Horan,
attorney for Industrial Communications and Electronics.
Horan said he
could not provide proof of the planned Coast Guard towers in writing,
but commissioners agreed to give the company until the next regular
meeting in Key West to come up with the documents.
"What we are
talking about is millions and millions of taxpayers' money and multiple
500 foot towers" if the private tower is not allowed, he said.
Industrial
Communications is pushing a federal lawsuit against the county for
stopping its tower project in 2000, but said it is willing to settle the
suit if commissioners allow construction at the abandoned borrow pit
site on Cudjoe.
It is
appealing an 11th Circuit Court decision that the case must be tried in
state court, where the company lost an earlier suit.
Public outcry
shut down the tower project in 2000 and the county changed the law to
limit new towers to a maximum height of 330 feet.
"We are as
opposed to this tower as we ever were," said Dennis Henize, who lives
close to the site. "I would prefer that this would not be continued."
The tower
would be a visual blight and dangerous to birds that use the Florida
Keys as a migration route, opponents say.
Some said
Wednesday the county should reject a settlement because the company
could be losing the case.
"I think it is
extremely early if you are going to talk settlement at all," said Lee
Rohe, "You have nothing to lose or gamble -- you are in the driver's
seat."
If the county
loses the appeal, it would only mean going back to state court and
arguing the merit of its tower ordinance, Rohe said.
Also at the
commission:
* Land for a
Conch Key wastewater treatment system was transferred to the Florida
Keys Aqueduct Authority as part of the continuing effort to upgrade all
sewage treatment systems before 2010.
*
Commissioners held closed-door negotiations over a long-awaited
contract, including pay increases, with the Professional Firefighters of
Monroe County union.
* Mayor Murray
Nelson said a contract offer has not yet been approved for David
Bullock, the top choice for the county's new administrator, but is
expected to be worked out as soon as next week.
ttritten@keysnews.com
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