Improved radio coverage in the Poudre Canyon is the most frequently cited the need for a tower on Middle or South Bald Mountain.
The Poudre Canyon has been continuously settled for over a century, with state highway 14 constructed through the canyon in the 1920's. Is it necessary that we now degrade the summits of the Laramies to provide increasing safety in this place?
Alternative: Multiple radio transmitters in the Poudre
Larimer County estimates it can provide public safety coverage to the Poudre Canyon for $2.5 million by placing transmitters in the canyon itself, but balks at the effort required to arrange the required five tower locations. The Poudre Canyon is a developed area, with hundreds of homes and businesses and a state highway that supports thousands of automobiles each week.
This solution, which puts the equipment in the canyon where it's needed would likely be cheaper than the $5 million required for a summit site, and at a far lower environmental cost.
Alternative: No action
The National Environmental Protection Act process requires the study of a no action alternative to environmentally destructive projects. When considering the tower project, several questions must be asked:
Is it the county government's role to guarantee, at any cost, fast and reliable emergency services to everyone, no matter where they choose to live and work?
Is it our responsibility to understand and protect the natural values of the places we choose to live, or to mitigate and develop them away as quickly as possible?
Are we stuck in this cycle?
- Leave the city for the country
- Miss city comforts and services
- Turn the country into a city
- Repeat
Finally, how could overall safety in Larimer County be improved by reallocating the more than $5 million of estimated tower costs to other areas such as law enforcement personnel and equipment, road and bridge improvements, and community services?
The Mummy Range Institute encourages a better use of our public money and natural resources than the tower facility proposed by Larimer County.
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