A brief update on AT&T's cell tower construction plans.
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Telecommunications
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Accelerate Virginia broadband mapping project
In an effort to expand high-speed Internet access across the state, Rappahannock County is working with Virginia Tech’s eCorridors program on Accelerate Virginia, a new broadband mapping project. One small action, one big difference By sparing just a few minutes of your time to take the Accelerate Virginia speed test, you will help encourage...
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High school cell monopole OK’d by supervisors
In a four-to-one vote Monday night, the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors cleared the way for AT&T to construct a 199-foot cell tower behind Rappahannock High School in accordance with a revised plan meant to address concerns about the pole’s proximity to school buildings.
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Planners OK last two poles
After a final balloon test this weekend, the cell phone tower permit process moves into the hands of county supervisors March 7. The County Planning Commission voted last Wednesday night (Feb. 16) to recommend approval of the last two facilities in AT&T’s five-project plan to offer coverage to an estimated 45 percent of county...
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Up in the Hollow: Schools and cell towers — git ‘er . . . educated
The Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors, at the behest of AT&T, will vote at its March meeting on the tabled motion to place a cell tower at the Rappahannock High School. In a surprise move, according to the Rappahannock News, “an alternate site for the proposed 199-foot monopole at the high school had been...
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Planners approve last two AT&T cell projects
NOTE: The updated version of this report is here. The Rappahannock County Planning Commission voted Wednesday night to recommend approval of the last two of AT&T’s five-project plan to provide cell coverage to an estimated 45 percent of county residents by building three new monopoles and extending two existing Sprint poles. The vote was...
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Sperryville monopole OK’d; AT&T’s school site adjusted and delayed
Meeting before a partisan crowd of about 40 at the high school auditorium, the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors took two unanimous actions Monday night in the matter of two of AT&T’s five proposed cellular installations. One was unanticipated, the other clearly unwanted by those partisans.
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Letter: Our children’s brains
I believe I speak for many people in this county, especially parents of children in the public schools. Given both the horrible aesthetic impact of a nearly 200-foot tower on U.S. 211 towering up behind the school, and a potential long-term health hazard of low-energy radio waves on the brains of children, I urge...
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Planners OK two more cell towers
The county’s board of supervisors will consider at its next meeting on Feb. 7 AT&T’s applications to build two more 199-foot cellular-service monopoles in the county.
Both were recommended for approval by county planners last week.
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Letter: Tower at school — give it an F
As a parent with young children about to enter Rappahannock schools, I’m deeply concerned that our planning commission has approved the proposed 199-foot cell tower less than 100 feet from the high school. It is also very troubling that the school board would agree to lease its land to AT&T to build a tower...
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Letter: ‘Frustrating’ cell tower meeting
The Jan. 17 Rappahannock County Planning Commission meeting was exceedingly frustrating to witness. We recognize that outcomes will not always be in our favor. We do, however, expect that the process will be fair and thorough; both of which we feel were lacking during this meeting. First, the commission received new information from AT&T...
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Letter: And the reason for 200-foot towers is . . . ?
When something is being shoved down my throat I want to know why. I hear some say we will get broadband Internet with AT&T’s cell tower plan. I hear others say cell phone service. Others say it will help our volunteer fire and rescue teams. But I don’t hear specifics. I see maps that...
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Planners OK two more AT&T monopoles
After a public hearing at the high school attended by some 50 citizens Wednesday night, the Rappahannock County Planning Commission voted to recommend approval to the supervisors for two more cell tower proposals by AT&T. Among those in attendance, more than two dozen citizens took their three minutes apiece to speak about AT&T’s plans...
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40+ attend cell meeting
Rappahannock citizens concerned about AT&T’s application to erect two more 199-foot cell phone towers in the county attended an “informational” meeting on Monday to voice their concerns and hear their options. The meeting sponsored by the Rappahannock League for Environmental Protection (RLEP), the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) and private citizens, came in the waning...
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Up in the Hollow: Let’s put this call on hold
Big Brother is on the loose. When Congress passed the Communications Act of 1996, a piece of legislation written by and for the telecommunications industry, which put $40 million into its lobbying effort (not including campaign donations), the people of America were stripped of some very basic rights. Ten years ago, when Sprint made...
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Photos: Sperryville, high school cell tower balloon tests
Since the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors last week approved the first, in Boston, of five proposed AT&T cell service monopoles, there’s been much talk about cell towers’ impact on the county’s long-protected scenic values and safe roads — and much of that can be found in this week’s edition. (Meanwhile, the county planning...
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Letter: Nothing scenic about cell towers
In 1962, forward-thinking leaders in Rappahannock County adopted a zoning ordinance that would help protect the scenic and rural aspects of this county. Landowners throughout the county voluntarily down-zoned their properties to protect the county from being suburbanized. Since then, private landowners have voluntarily protected more than 28,500 acres of land through voluntary conservation...
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Letter: A dim view of cell tower
With much appreciation for the Planning Commission, the Board of Supervisors and the tremendous responsibilities of both groups, I respectfully disagree with their collective decision to approve the first installation of AT&T’s proposed cell tower infrastructure. My basis is simple: installing 199-foot cell towers (placing 12 panel antennas and related ground equipment located within...
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Letter: Supervisors got it right on cell tower issue
The Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors meeting on the night of Jan. 3 was a shining example of effective representative government. A large contingent of the community crowded into the courthouse to express their opinions as to whether their board member should vote for, or against, the erection of a new AT&T cell tower...
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Letter: A height disadvantage
While supporting cell phone service in Rappahannock County, my wife and I were taken aback by the recent balloon test on the Jones property just off Woodward Road. The cell phone tower application states that: (1) “the visual impact of the tower is minimal from the surrounding properties and road,” and (2) “the nearest...
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Letter: Too tall an order
There is nothing subtle about them. The height of the AT&T 199-foot cell monopoles proposed in Sperryville and at the high school are a jarring contrast to Rappahannock’s rolling hillside and mountain vistas. The 3-foot balloons used this past Saturday simply do not accurately represent the multiple 12-foot platforms being proposed at the top...
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Letter: Cell tower — it’s big
Like most county residents, we are eager to have faster Internet service. That said, we were surprised on Saturday morning to see the height of the proposed cell tower on Woodward Road. As most readers know, AT&T is proposing a 199-foot cell tower in Sperryville, and the company raised a test balloon last Saturday...
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First A&T cell tower: approved
In the end, practicality beat out romance. Facing an audience of more than three dozen Monday night — most of whom applauded the 15 citizens who spoke out against the first plan to build a cellular monopole in the county in a decade — the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors shook its collective head,...
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Postcard from 2020
This following was sent in with a return address -- and a sense of humor -- suspiciously resembling that of Flint Hill resident Ron Maxwell.
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Letter: You sure it’s a satellite phone?
As we know the Rappahannock County Planning Commission has approved the AT&T cell tower and the decision now goes to the county board of supervisors. It is pretty much assured that it will be approved. However, I would like to address some individuals who sent in letters to the editor suggesting that people buy...
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Letter: Reader likes her ‘Snappy’
After reading last week’s Rappy Snappy, I feel compelled to say, “Kudos to Walter Nicklin and all who have taken the task of making the Rappahannock News a fine local paper.” I know just enough about the newspaper business to know it is a thankless and costly undertaking. Just a few of my bravos...
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Cell tower OK’d by planners
The Rappahannock County Planning Commission last Wednesday unanimously voted to recommend approval of AT&T’s application for the first of five proposed cell towers in the county. The matter will come before the board of supervisors for a final vote at its Jan. 3 meeting. The vote Wednesday night came after roughly half of the...
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Up in the Hollow: Cell phones, a towering fancy
All hail the things we can’t do without: the ice man, the “church key,” carbon paper, telegrams, spats, eight-track players, the outhouse, the truss, cell phones, whitewall tires and Wildroot Creme Oil. These were all things that people simply could not do without at one time or another; the latest craze, the badly needed...
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Planners say yes to first AT&T tower
The Rappahannock County Planning Commission Wednesday night unanimously voted to recommend approval of AT&T's application for the first of five proposed cell towers in the county.
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Letter: Ned Ludd or Thomas Hobbes?
Desperately clinging to yesteryear’s outmoded cell phone tower technology while not taking advantage of the latest voice-data transmission science afforded in the extraordinary innovations of geostatic satellite technology is a strange place from which to call someone else a Luddite. Cell phone towers were developed way back in the dawn of wireless communications. Years...
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