Construction is underway on a 190-foot cell tower in Walpole.
Builders are at work on the steel base of the structure, Paul Kelsey, the property owner, said May 12.
Kelsey said he thinks construction of the tower will take about three to four weeks.
Global Tower Partners is building the structure. According to the company’s website, it “owns, manages or master leases more than 13,000 wireless sites” and is the “largest privately-owned tower operator in the U.S.”
The company’s customers, who “sign multi-year lease agreements to use [Global Tower Partners] sites,” include “all of the large telecommunications carriers.”
A March 5 letter from Maureen Hopkins to South Bristol Code Enforcement Officer Dan Kaplinger specifically references AT&T Mobility and Northeast Wireless.
The letter asked Kaplinger to sign a document to verify that the projects – including the construction of the tower and the addition of various “wireless telecommunications equipment” by AT&T Mobility and Northeast Wireless – didn’t require town review or permits.
Kaplinger signed the document. There are no zoning restrictions on the parcel in question, he said.
According to the document attached to Hopkins’ letter, site work will “include the construction of a gravel driveway and parking area, installation of telephones [sic] poles for electrical and telephone service, construction of a 190-foot lattice style wireless telecommunications tower, tower foundation and electrical meter bank surrounded by an 8-foot tall, 75′ x 75′ fence.”
Hopkins, of ATC Realty in Falmouth, did not return messages.
Kelsey, the property owner, said he’s signed three contracts since 2001 to allow construction of a tower on the site, all of which expired before construction began.
Another Walpole property owner, Steven Viega, told The Lincoln County News in March that Bay Communications planned to build a cell tower on his land.
Viega said he doesn’t know if the construction on the Kelsey property will affect the company’s plans.
