Cell Tower Goes Back Up

FARMINGTON — After inspections by city Building Official Rick Bramall and a third-party inspection by Terracon, the city gave Smith Communications the go-ahead to put up a new cell tower for the second time.

The company removed its new, 150-foot-tall monopole cell tower last month because the concrete foundation had not been inspected as required, according to city officials. Smith Communications is leasing land from Farmington Church of Christ on Main Street for the tower.

Bramall issued a stop order on the cell tower in a June 18 email to Kayla Kramer, the company’s site development manager. In the email, Bramall said the city was concerned because the monopole required special inspections in addition to inspections by the city. The cell tower was already up and almost finished before city officials were aware of any work.

City officials met with Kramer and Mike Smith with Smith Communications on Aug. 1 to discuss options in moving forward. According to Bramall, Kramer and Smith were not able to come up with anything to verify the foundation had been built according to design and engineering plans. Smith then agreed to dismantle the tower, remove the concrete foundation and start over.

In a Sept. 10 letter to Kramer, Bramall wrote that he found the slab footing and pier footing to support the monopole tower to be acceptable, as well as density testing of backfill and concrete compression tests.

An inspection by Terracon found the foundation details to be acceptable per the engineer drawings, according to Bramall.

“Smith Communications has successfully met all the foundation requirements in order to proceed with the further installation of the tower sections,” Bramall told Kramer.

The company finished installing the tower sections last week. The tower, which has a stealth flagpole design, will have five separate canisters for internal, concealed antennas to accommodate multiple wireless carriers. Verison Wireless will occupy two canisters as the anchor tenant.

The tower is the first monopole installed in Farmington under the city’s new telecommunications ordinance, adopted in April 2018.

Kramer did not reply to an email requesting a comment from the company.

LYNN KUTTER ENTERPRISE-LEADER A monopole cell tower, located behind Farmington Church of Christ on Main Street, is back up, after it was taken down because the company did not have the concrete foundation supporting the tower inspected as required by the city.