LABELLE — At the Aug. 25 meeting of the Board of Hendry County Commissioners Skyway Towers LLC requested an exception to install a monopole cellphone tower on a property in Port LaBelle, but the board tabled the discussion due to their own concerns and some concerns of residents.

The proposed site for the tower is two acres at the southwest intersection of State Road 80 and Cowboy Way. The proposed facility is intended to address existing coverage gaps within T-Mobile's wireless network and enhance overall service capacity in the surrounding area.

The request was brought back before the board at the Hendry BOCC meeting on Monday, Sept. 28.

One of the concerns brought up at the August meeting was backup power to the tower in the event of a power outage. Commissioner Mitchell Wills had said that the proposed area experiences frequent power outages, and that he would like to see a generator installed.

At that same meeting Jeff Wright, a lawyer who spoke on behalf of Skyway Towers LLC, had promised to investigate the matter. At the meeting on Monday night, he informed the board that he had since learned T-Mobile has generators, batteries and a team that works around the clock when there is a storm to make sure the generators and batteries are functioning.

Wright says they are willing to add a condition that would state something along the lines of “Each carrier shall provide reasonably sufficient backup power or systems in place to ensure that power exists in the event of power failure.”

Wills asked Wright how far away the generator would be from the closest home, “I just want to make sure we’re far enough way from the closest resident - most of these generators now are pretty quiet - but I want to make sure that we’re far enough away that in the event this generator does run, that she [the closest resident] and her family are not disturbed by it. So whatever we have to do to locate it the furthest on site away from her home, I’d like to see that.”

Board Chair Ramon Iglesias suggested positioning the generator on the north side so it’s closer to State Road 80.

Wright suggested adding a condition that says, “Shall be situated in a manner to minimize impact to residential properties.”

“Write that in there,” Wills responded. “Sounds good.”

Another concern that was addressed was whether there really is need for another cellphone tower in the area. At the August meeting it was pointed out that there is an existing Streamline tower 4.7 miles from the Skyway Towers site, but Wright had said that it did not cover all the coverage gaps. After that meeting, Wright learned that there is another T-Mobile Tower very close to the Streamline Tower.

Lou Elliott from Streamline was present at the meeting this week and had a few suggestions. One of those suggestions was that the board have an RF (Radio Frequency) Study done on the existing Streamline Tower specifically at the 230-foot radio access height that is available. He claims that Streamline’s 350-foot tower makes the nearby towers redundant. “Then the other thing I would advise y’all, if you do want to approve this tower,” he said. “Is don’t allow [vagueness] which specifically call out a generator backup rather than backup power because batteries are considered backup power and that can be a loophole that a carrier plays in the future.”

“I’m just trying to digest what Mr. Elliot just said,” Commissioner Emory Howard said. He asked Ryan Alexander of Planning and Community Development to shed some light on Elliott’s statement.

“He’s saying we don’t know if we might need both [towers] because they haven’t done the study at 230 feet,” Ryan explained. “They only done it at 150 feet.”

“I want to address that,” Wright said. “I hear where they’re coming from and it makes logical sense but it’s a little odd for me to have one tower company to ask another tower company to do a study when we’re trying to meet seven criteria and we’ve met them. So, we’re happy to work with Streamline. This is the first time I’ve ever seen this opportunity. But it’s hard for me to make a promise when my client is the tower company. It’s hard for me to make a promise that T-Mobile, the tenant, is willing to do a propagation map for another tower company when I don’t work for either of them.”

Wright explained that he could bring the request to his client and T-Mobile but that he can’t guarantee that he can convince a third-party carrier to do a propagation map for a third-party tower company, so it’s difficult for him to commit to it. He also brought a letter from T-Mobile stating that the current towers will not work for what they want to do.

County attorney Matt Raulerson then made the point that Mr. Wright’s client is the tower company, T-Mobile is their client, and Streamline is a competing tower company. In other words, if the board asked for this study, they would be asking Skyway Towers to send their own client to a competing tower company. “I’m not sure that’s what we ought to be doing,” Raulerson said. “For the future anyway.”

“I don’t love the idea of a bunch of towers either,” Commissioner Wills said. “But it looks like these folks have done their homework and come back to everything we’ve asked and if they’ve met all the criteria, I’ll make a motion to approve.”

Commissioner Howard seconded the motion, and the board unanimously approved the request to build the tower.