Text Box: Planned 190-foot tower seen as cell, Net boost By DOUGLAS BURNS Staff Writer A Sioux Falls, S.D.-based company Monday received approval to build a 190-foot telecommunications tower on First Assembly of God property just outside of the northwest part of Carroll. Carroll's zoning Board of Adjustment Monday approved plans from Wireless Network Management for the tower, which will be located on leased property east of the church. It is near the hill known as Mount Moses and will be erected in an area 400 feet-by-400 feet with a 6-foot chain link security fence. The tower could go up as soon as June on a 10-year lease of the land, company officials said. Jerry Wilke, project manager with Wireless Network Management, said the communications tower will dramatically increase competition in the Carroll area for cell phone and Internet service. Sev-eral companies can place antennas and other devices on the tower to provide a variety of services, Wilke said. "It's like a vertical strip mall for carriers," Wilke said. Wilke said one immediate example of the tower's benefit will be to owners of iPhones, the Apple cell and Internet-access devices that would become reliably and fully functional as a result of one company's expected presence on the tower. He expects additional carriers to move into the Carroll market creating more choices for customers. The tower also could be used for radio station equipment and even public safety devices. The $250,000 tower can hold up to 80 antennas, Wilke said. In January, the Board of Adjustment turned down the wireless company's request for a larger tower - one that stretched 240 feet - in large part because of area residents' concerns about lights that would need to be on the tower to prevent airplanes from flying into it. Wilke said the 190-foot tower is under the Federal Aviation Administration's 200-foot mark for requiring lights. "If we stuck it next to the airport that would be different," Wilke said. Mayor Jim Pedelty, who has no official role on the Board of Adjustment, attended the meeting and sat in the audience Monday. He hailed the decision as a major step for Carroll, noting that as general manager at the Carrollton Centre he hears complaints from visitors about lack of coverage with phones. This should improve that, he said. What's more, the City Council has made technology improvements in Carroll a priority for some years now, and this is seen by Pedelty as a move in that direction.