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Qwest plans cell phone tower at club on Barnett Road By MELISSA MARTIN Mail Tribune Qwest, the company that provides telephone service in Medford, hopes to install an 80-foot cell tower at Superior Athletic Club on Barnett Road to expand its wireless services. The Medford Planning Commission approved the application 4-2 last week. But Mark Olfson, an owner of the adjacent Larson Creek Professional Center, said he will appeal to the City Council. The council could address the issue in February. The tower would be visible from nearby homes and businesses, including Imperia Laser Eye Centers, Merrill Lynch, an Asante Health System office and Samis Inc., Olfson said. "The big issue for us is aesthetics and livability," Olfson said. "This is a nice area and they want to put the tower right by the creek. It will be taller than anything around here." Planning Commissioner Carl Bartlett, who voted Thursday against the tower, said Qwest failed to meet the city's aesthetic criteria, which requires towers be camouflaged to look like a tree or flagpole or placed near church steeples or stadium lighting. City code also encourages applicants to build on public property and share space on existing towers when possible. For example, in Ashland the roof of the Ashland Springs Hotel is a shared site for phone companies. Qwest representatives said they believed painting the tower green would help meet the city's aesthetic criteria. And Qwest couldn't find a site to share in the "search ring," or coverage area, wrote Pat Dougan, Qwest senior systems engineer in Portland. The proposed Superior Athletic Club tower is designed for nine antennas to cover southeast Medford, from Keene Drive to Highway 99 and North Phoenix Road. The tower is one of four planned in Medford and Central Point, said Qwest spokeswoman Carey Brandt in Denver. Qwest has been offering Personal Communication Service, or PCS, in the Portland and Eugene areas for five years. The towers would bring PCS to Qwest customers here, making it possible for them to use their cell phones to send a fax, check e-mail, browse the Web or listen to voice messages from land lines. The tower would also have a global positioning system because the PCS wireless service needs precise timing to transmit data. "That's what PCS is all about - the ability to send and receive text messages, informational sort of things," Dougan said. Qwest is following in the footsteps of Sprint, one of about 10 wireless providers in Southern Oregon. Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.