CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – The effort to get a cell phone tower in place to serve the Spring Valley community is moving closer to completion.
“A lot of people have been involved and it's finally paid off,” said Bob Hendrickson, who chairs the safety committee for the County Service Area No. 2 Advisory Board, which serves the Spring Valley Lakes subdivision, located east of Clearlake Oaks.
Hendrickson said the project is now in the “home stretch.”
CSA No. 2 Advisory Board will hold a special town hall meeting on the cell tower project, which will be installed by Verizon. “We're at the point now where we can present a plan,” Hendrickson said.
The meeting, which is open to the public, is set for 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 15, at the Spring Valley Community Center, 3000 Wolf Creek Road.
At that meeting, the community will get a status update on the project plan. Hendrickson said the advisory board also will announce the proposed location for the tower, which will be in an area not likely to be affected by fire. Northshore Fire officials will be in attendance.
The cell tower itself, he said, is going to look like a water tower, “so it will blend in with our rustic community look.”
The Feb. 15 meeting will include a discussion of minor changes that Verizon is requiring be made to the subdivision's covenants, conditions and restrictions in order to allow for the tower, according to Hendrickson.
If all goes well, Hendrickson estimated that the tower could be completed within six months' time.
He admitted that when he and his wife first moved to Spring Valley from a metropolitan area he thought the lack of cell phone service in the area was quaint and “a blessing.” However, “It became a real hassle,” he said.
“It is the 21st century and it's one thing the community desperately needs,” he said.
The effort to get a cell tower for Spring Valley was spurred by public safety concerns that became apparent during the Wye Fire in August 2012, Hendrickson said.
The Wye Fire incident was a combination of the Wye and Walker fires, which broke out minutes apart on the afternoon of Sunday, Aug. 12, 2012, burning a total of 7,934 acres over a week's time.
The fire damaged power and other utility lines. In particular, it burned phone lines near the Clearlake Oaks Moose Lodge, cutting off communication to Spring Valley, said Hendrickson.
He said he was at work when the fire broke out. His wife was being evacuated but wasn't able to reach him to let him know what was happening.
While communications issues had been identified in Spring Valley many years ago, the recent fires proved to be “the key we needed to open the door to push things through,” according to Northshore Fire Protection District Chief Jay Beristianos.
“After the Wye and Walker Fire it was easily identified that we had no communications out in Spring Valley,” Beristianos said. “Something had to be done.”
Hendrickson said the lack of communication capability proved to be a rallying point. Recalling the fires, he noted, “It could have been a complete disaster if the wind had been a little stronger and it played out different.”
After the fires a group of community members, and local fire and county officials worked together to move the project ahead, he said.
Among those Hendrickson – himself a key player in the project – credited for their efforts are Beristianos; Cal Fire Battalion Chief Mike Wink, the initial incident commander on the Wye Fire; Northshore Deputy Chief Pat Brown, one of the first responders on the Wye Fire; Lake County Fire Protection District Chief Willie Sapeta, another of the Wye Fire's first responders; county Supervisor Denise Rushing; and Verizon project manager Aaron Salars.
Hendrickson said the project also has received support from County Administrative Officer Matt Perry and Community Development Director Rick Coel.
“All of these people have helped grease the wheels a little bit,” said Hendrickson.
“It is an exciting thing to finally come to fruition,” said Perry.
Coel said he's had the opportunity to review some preliminary plans for the proposed tower, including a site plan and renderings.
“The location looks good but approval of a variance will be needed due to limited parcel size and setback issues, which we will process at the same time we process their use permit application,” Coel said. “Once we receive the application we intend to fast track it due to the public safety needs of Spring Valley community.”
Rushing said she gave input to the various cell phone carriers that considered taking on the project and encouraged community members to lobby the appropriate people by giving out the contact information.
Hendrickson said Brown, Wink and Sapeta all were instrumental in pushing the project forward by keeping pressure on the cell carriers.
Spring Valley residents Helen Mitcham and Win Cary got petitions out to community members and an email campaign also was used for outreach, Hendrickson said.
Beristianos said discussions with carriers about providing cell phone service began in 2012, not long after the fires occurred.
During the Wye Fire, Verizon set up a temporary communications tower to assist emergency responders, Beristianos said. Eventually it was Verizon which came forward as the carrier for the tower.
“We were able to explain the importance of it after a couple of different discussions and they kind of ran with it from there,” Beristianos said of Verizon.
Brown said he worked with Verizon representatives to show them potential tower location sites, and connected them with community members and county officials.
Having cell coverage in Spring Valley won't just be important for residents, but it will offer significant advantages to Northshore Fire, Brown said.
He explained that expensive new state-of-the-art heart monitors donated to the district last year use cell communication to transmit information about patients to hospitals. When firefighters are in Spring Valley, those monitors aren't able to transmit, he said.
But if cell coverage is available, that will change. “That's really huge,” said Brown.
A cell tower also is expected to help medics communicate straight to hospitals, as Brown said the radio channel they use for direct calls to hospitals doesn't currently work in Spring Valley.
A vote of residents will need to be taken to give final approval to the project, with Hendrickson explaining that a 50-percent-plus-one majority of respondents is needed.
Verizon is reimbursing the property owners association for the costs of producing and mailing the requisite forms out to the homeowners for their approval, Hendrickson said.
There also is a 30-day comment period and an appearance needed before the Board of Supervisors, but Hendrickson hopes the project will be completed by this summer, before the height of the county's fire season.
Brown said the Spring Valley tower is part of an overall plan to increase cell phone service all the way along the Highway 20 corridor.
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