The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Gunnison high school tower now operational
By Mark Reaman
It appears the Verizon cell tower constructed at Gunnison High School is ready for operations. The Gunnison Watershed School District received word that the company was turning on the tower Thursday, July 25. School superintendent Leslie Nichols said she has not received confirmation that the tower was operational last week.
Nichols said that it was her understanding that the city of Gunnison would be measuring radio frequency (RF) readings this week. Pre-readings were measured at zero. Gunnison city manager Russ Forrest confirmed that the tower is running “but not generating any RF signal.”
Nichols said Verizon was still open to finding a place other than the Crested Butte Community School to locate a similar tower in Crested Butte.
Crested Butte town manager Dara MacDonald said the town has been in contact with Verizon representatives and they are open to relocating the Crested Butte cell tower site to the town shops on the northeast side of town. Neither the GCEA substation nor Avalanche Park sites also suggested for possible use would work for Verizon.
A Verizon representative is scheduled to come to Crested Butte to evaluate the town shop site in August. According to Verizon, “The proposed site would need to be at least 55 feet tall to provide 4G network coverage. A small lease space of approximately 200 square feet is required to house related equipment cabinets at grade. The enclosure will be fenced.”
MacDonald expected the site visit to take place August 12 and she reminded the corporation that it would have to go through an approval process with the Board of Zoning and Architectural Review (BOZAR) no matter where the tower is located.
