Norfolk’s first cell phone tower goes on line

By John Funchion

Following six weeks of construction, the long awaited new cell phone tower, soaring 180 feet above the Norfolk skyline at Town Farm, came on line last month with its first tenant, Verizon, bringing much needed coverage for local residents.
After a March 13, 2007 approval by the Connecticut Siting Council, work finally began on the project in mid October, ending in late November. Built and owned by the Message Center Management Company (MCM) of Hartford, the new tower will be able to accommodate four more companies besides Verizon, including Cingular, which has already reserved its space for a platform on the tower. Other potential users are Nextel/Sprint, T-Mobile and All-Tel, a local Litchfield County operator.
Hans Fiedler, National Sales Manager for MCM, said it was his firm, along with Cingular, that approached the town a couple of years ago about constructing the tower. Final approval followed several meetings and public hearings before construction could begin.
Norfolk First Selectman Sue Dyer said, “the only cost to the town was a $100 fee for the town attorney, who drew up easement conditions.” She added that “rental compensation for the town would be 30% of gross collected (by MCM) for the first ten years. After that it would jump to 40%. The remainder of the money would go to MCM to pay for construction costs.”
The cost of building one of these towers, according to Fiedler, is usually between $110,000 and $120,000. In addition to the rental compensation, MCM will also be paying taxes to the town.
The completed tower itself is something to behold. It is eight feet wide at its base, tapering upward in four gigantic sections of various lengths to a width of one foot at the top of the six-sided, steel spire. Fiedler pointed out that “the spacing of those sections is calculated precisely to maintain the integrity of the tower.” A ladder consisting of 70 steel arms leads to the Verizon platform. On any given windy day, the tall structure can sway a distance of six inches.
There are twelve antennae on the Verizon platform. Connected to these are twelve 190-foot coaxial cables, totaling 2,280 feet, running up inside the tower. These ultimately attach to the data/signal shed on the ground below. The cables consist of an inner one-half inch, hollow copper tube that transmits signals from the shed. The tube is surrounded by a plastic insulator, followed by another copper covering with an outer plastic sheath. These coaxial cables are constructed in such a way as to prevent any leakage of signals as they travel up to the antennae to be pushed out into the broader airways. Fiber optics will not be used in any of the cables.
Fiedler said that each company using the tower will be required to provide its own shed on the property. If fully utilized in the future there could conceivably be five sheds surrounding the bottom of the lofty tower.
Steel sections for the towering structure were manufactured by Valmont, Inc. of Texas. The current shed on the property was built by the CellXion Company of Bossier City, Louisiana. MCM itself hired several subcontractors and a dozen workers to do the electrical, concrete and site development work. An up-to-date cell phone usage map was used by MCM to determine proper placement of the tower.
Between rental fees and portions of the gross income generated from lessees and taxes, the tower should prove to be a long-term economic benefit to Norfolk.