Rural Deschutes County residents split on cell tower plans

A 140 foot cellphone tower proposed Verizon Wireless caused some heated discussion Tuesday night during a public hearing attended by rural Deschutes County residents.

Verizon Wireless told the county during the meeting, the tower would increase the coverage its customers near Highway 20 east of Bend.

Carol Fulkerson enjoys looking at her picture-perfect view. The thing she doesn’t enjoy is her cellphone coverage.

“So at the moment, I have two bars,” Fulkerson said Wednesday .

Fulkerson, who lives near Gosney Road, said her calls constantly drop near her home.

She worries that if there were an emergency, she would have a difficult time calling for help.

“When people are paying a sizeable monthly fees, we need to able to rely on it,” Fulkerson said.

The Ward family have Verizon as their cellphone carrier and get great reception where they live. The only problem is: The tower would be 600 feet from their backyard.

Ward said these types of towers will ruin his neighborhood and the rural community.

He thinks the tower should be in the area where it’s needed.

“This is not a NIMBY (not in my backyard) situation for us. This proposal will impact all the livability for residents and visitors in Central Oregon,” he said.

For Ward, it’s about making sure his view is not ruined by a cellphone tower.

Residents who didn’t make it to Tuesday night’s public hearing will have two weeks to turn in written statements to the county’s Community Development Department.

Verizon Wireless released this statement on the proposed cell tower:

“Our goal is to provide the superior network performance and reliability our customers expect and deserve. We have proposed this wireless facility to improve Verizon Wireless voice and data coverage/capacity east of (the) Bend city limit, and much of the rural area along HWY 20 (Central Oregon Hwy).”