Friends of Brockway Mountain: Deadline for comments on Brockway cell tower is June 10, 2013

By Friends of Brockway Mountain

This photo, taken from a lookout point on Brockway Mountain Drive, looking east, offers a view of the town of Copper Harbor, the harbor at left and Lake Fanny Hooe at right. The proposed cell tower location would be about 3/4 of a mile west of this lookout point. (File photo by Keweenaw Now)

COPPER HARBOR -- If you love the scenic value of BROCKWAY MOUNTAIN and historic BROCKWAY MOUNTAIN DRIVE your ACTION is Needed NOW!!!!

Please do something TODAY or TOMORROW, Monday, to help protect Brockway Mountain from degradation and damage from an ill-conceived cell tower location. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE: the deadline for comments is Monday, June 10, 2013.

If we don’t act, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and SHPO (State Historic Preservation Office) are not going to do anything and will let SBA and Ramaker proceed with a 199-foot cell tower on Brockway Mountain Drive that will require power to be run up the Drive from Copper Harbor.

The following actions would help communicate that the local community strongly supports and has been requesting an alternative to a cell tower on Brockway Mountain Drive.

1. Please call (leave a message) and email Brian Grennell, Cultural Resource Management specialist in Michigan's SHPO (State Historic Preservation Office). Tell Brian that the only acceptable mitigation for the proposed Brockway cell tower is to find an alternate location(s). Also ask Brian to invite the FCC’s Steve DelSordo to participate in a process to work with the community in order to find alternatives that will serve the cell phone needs of the Copper Harbor community and surrounding region.

Email Brian Grennell at GrennellB@michigan.gov or call him at 517-335-2721.

2. Call and write Steve DelSordo, Federal Preservation officer for the FCC. Tell him Brockway Mountain's constituents respectfully request that a more transparent and honest process be used to work with the community to bring cell service to Copper Harbor and the surrounding area. Ask the FCC to become an active facilitator and help the community protect Brockway Mountain -- a historic, ecological and scenic vista treasure of Keweenaw, Michigan, and the World -- while at the same time establishing a reasonable cell phone approach and installation for the area.

Email Steve DelSordo at stephen.delsordo@fcc.gov, call him at 202-418-1986, or write to him at
Stephen. G. DelSordo, Federal Preservation Officer
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554

3. The Ramaker (SBA Consultant) comment period ends on Monday, June 10, 2013. The above actions are needed by then, and messages should continue to be sent to Ramaker (history@ramaker.com)! In the message, say who you are and state, "The only reasonable mitigation for a cell tower on Brockway Mountain is to find an alternative site." If you have already sent comments to Ramaker, also send them to Steve DelSordo and Brian Grennell.

IF SHPO and the FCC receive many requests this weekend, they will have grounds to do something different.

THIS IS OUR OPPORTUNITY TO CHANGE THE OUTCOME OF THIS DECISION TO PUT A CELL TOWER ON BROCKWAY.  PLEASE CALL AND WRITE A QUICK E-MAIL BY MONDAY!  ENCOURAGE YOUR FRIENDS AND OTHER INTERESTED PARTIES TO DO THE SAME VIA FACEBOOK AND EMAIL!!
Thank you for helping to save this TREASURE!!

Editor's Note: See the May 29, 2013, article, "Citizens, groups, speak at public meeting on potential effects of proposed cellphone tower on Brockway Mountain."