Tower Family Foundation launched

The tower industry has seen more than its fair share of tragedies over the past year. Always we think about how this must affect the loved ones of the fallen, but it seemed like few were doing anything to help. A family can be left in the lurch, especially if the climber was the family bread winner, not to mention the high cost of funeral arrangements or hospital bills. Fortunately, a new nonprofit was announced this week at CTIA’s Super Mobility Week. It’s called the The Tower Family Foundation. The foundation aims to get funds to families of injured tower workers to help cover immediate expenses that may not be covered by insurance policies. An initial funding donation of $400,000 was announced. For more details, click here to read Kelly Hill’s full report on the announcement. To visit the foundation’s website, click here.

14-story cemetery tower

When I suggested cell towers be built in cemeteries a while back, who knew AT&T would take that idea and run with it so quickly? Residents of New Castle County, Delaware, are about to receive a 14-story cell tower in a local cemetery. It was approved this week by the County Board of Adjustment. At first when you read that, it’s a little mind-blowing. 14-story? That sounds like a skyscraper of a tower! Well, translated to feet, it’s about 151 feet, which is on the upper end of tower sizes but nothing completely out of the norm. The size will look garish in comparison to the gravestones, but it’s not absurd. I think places like this local paper going with story measurement instead of feet is a grab for headlines. I’m now guilty of it too, but just for the sake of pointing out the ridiculousness of it.

Back to the tower itself, the most interesting part of the story is that in order to camouflage this tower they are going to build a fake bell tower around it! At least you have to give AT&T credit, it’s a creative bit of concealment and is appropriate for the setting. Besides, it’s in an undeveloped area of the cemetery and at least 650 feet from the nearest home. Now all they need is Quasimodo…

FCC Tower Tech Apprenticeship

Finally, the FCC is getting involved at the tower tech level, not just studying spy towers or the subject of policy change requests. The FCC and the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration announced a tower technician apprenticeship program. What are the details you may ask? Well, they are going to make a more detailed, formal announcement on Oct. 14 that outlines all of the details. Until then, click here to read the national guidelines for apprenticeship standards and then click here for the Tower Apprentice Level 1 work process schedule to get an idea of all the different types of training that will be involved, including OSHA, PPE, CPR, etc. If this program is as good as it sounds, it will be a very positive thing for the tower industry and ensure that not only are there opportunities for inexperienced climbers to gain some necessary experience to get into the industry, but that future climbers will likely have more training and experience, even on the first day of their jobs.

900lb Microwave Dish Removal

Just for fun, here’s a video of a crew moving a 900 pound microwave dish from an old tower:

Tower news quickies

Regional / local tower news

This week’s edition of cell tower industry news is created by Jarad Matula and brought to you by Towercrews.net.

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Cell Tower News: Tower Family Foundation; 14-story tower