Fayette County

commissioners Thursday will decide whether adding ten feet to the height

of an existing communications tower is better than building a new tower.

The county

Planning Commission thinks so. The group recommended that the County Commission

approve SprintCom Inc.'s request to increase the height of a tower on

Morgan Road from 180 feet to 190 feet to accommodate the company's cell

phone tower and improve its service to the area.

The 127-acre

site of the tower is near the county's eastern border, near McDonough

Road.

The land is

owned by Mary Kartos and the existing tower is owned and managed by Crown

Castle Inc.

SprintCom had

earlier asked for approval of a new tower on the Flintwood Farms on McDonough

Road, but commissioners turned down the firm's request for an exception

to the rules. The site was barely more than a half mile away from the

Morgan Road site, and county law requires a two-mile separation between

towers.

"The [Morgan

Road] site is in a heavily wooded site and is isolated. That reduces the

intrusiveness of the site to the surrounding area," said lawyer Jim

Ney, representing SprintCom.

Planning Commission

member Jim Graw questioned why the firm needs to increase the height of

the tower, when there's room for an additional antenna now.

But that antenna

would have to be placed at 160 feet high, and that wouldn't help SprintCom

customers get much better reception than they're getting now, Ney said.

"We'll

have the same series of complaints that we're getting now," he said.

If the tower is made taller, SprintCom's antenna would be at 190 feet,

and that would solve most of the problems, he said.

The company

also will reduce the height of a lightning rod on top of the tower from

15 feet to nine feet, to keep the tower below the 200-foot height at which

a blinking light would be required, Ney said.

That will avoid

a light that might disturb anyone living nearby, he said.

"This

clearly aims in the direction we have hoped for in the county," said

former Planning Commission Chairman Fred Bowen, commending the company

on its solution to the problem. The county's laws governing communications

towers call for as many antennae on each tower as possible, to reduce

the total number of towers in the county.

The group voted

unanimously to recommend the zoning change to allow the taller tower.

County commissioners

will meet Thursday at 7 p.m. at the County Administrative Complex.

Among other

items on the agenda:

The Board

of Education and Starr's Mill High School athletic boosters will ask for

funds to help erect lights at the Starr's Mill baseball fields.

Organizers

of the annual Wings Over Dixie air show also will ask for funding aid.

Commissioners

will consider relocating the Georgia State Highway Patrol drivers license

examiner's office, Children at Risk, and the Fayette Factor from the current

office space at the County Administrative Complex to the McElroy House

on McDonough Road. The relocation project would include funding remodeling

the house in the amount of $43,900.

Office space

for the county coroner also would be included in the project. Coroner

C.J. Mowell, who has been conducting his duties from his funeral home,

recently told commissioners he needs an office because the state is requiring

him to install a computer and file his reports by e-mail.

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