The Waldoboro Planning Board approved the proposed broadcast Internet tower on Storer Mountain at their regular meeting Dec. 8.
With the tower’s approval, Midcoast Internet Solutions, the broadcast Internet provider chosen by the town for their ConnectME-grant funded expansion of high speed Internet access, will be able to erect the first in a series of towers throughout the town.
The time frame for installation of the Storer Mountain tower is uncertain now that “winter happened,”” Project Manager Cameron Kilton said at the meeting.
At a meeting Oct. 13, the planning board reviewed – and approved – most of the documentation associated with the site, but Midcoast Internet Solutions failed to submit a detailed site plan at that time, so the issue was tabled.
Following a brief review of the recently submitted site plan, the board voted 5-0-1 to approve it; board member Abden Simmons was absent from the meeting and Barbara Boardman, attending her first meeting since being appointed to the board late last month, abstained.
Waldoboro Code Enforcement Officer Misty Gorski informed the board that an application for a second tower, on town property near the Waldoboro transfer station, which was also reviewed at the Oct. 13 meeting, has been withdrawn.
“The selectmen said that if any abutter objected to the transfer station tower, they would not approve it,” Gorski said, “and an abutter objected.”
Unlike the Storer Mountain tower, which will be on private property, the Waldoboro Board of Selectmen’s approval is required for any tower on town property.
Several weeks ago, when Waldoboro Town Manager William Post first received news that the abutter might object to the tower, he said the town already had another location selected, but declined to specify its location.
