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Greater Bemidji Area Joint Planning Commission recommends 150-foot tower for Paskvan
Nov 20, 2009 (The Bemidji Pioneer - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Sometimes making your case well makes all the difference.
After hearing and reading information provided by Roger Paskvan, owner of Roger's Two Way Radio, and some of his supporters, the Greater Bemidji Area Joint Planning Commission voted 8-0, with one commissioner abstaining, to recommend Paskvan be granted a 125-foot height variance to build a 150-foot communications tower to replace a 60-foot tower at his business, located at 102 Lincoln Ave. S.E.
Planning staff had originally recommended a 60-day extension of the review period.
The Joint Planning Board will consider the recommendation at its Dec. 9 meeting.
Roger's Two Way Radio has for 23 years provided two-way radio communications services for law enforcement and first responders in Bemidji and the surrounding area. For the past 15 years, the business has maintained two microwave signal paths from the Lincoln Avenue tower to a tower site on the north end of Lake Bemidji and a tower site on Mill Street.
Paskvan contends construction of the Bemidji Regional Event Center has interfered with his microwave signals as the facility's height has increased, which could adversely affect communications services for public safety agencies.
He approached planning administrator Mel Milender in September after he noticed a 15 percent decay in signal strength. By October, it had dropped 25 percent.
Microwave signals, Paskvan said, have zones that must be kept clear. The zone is known as the Fresnel zone, named for French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel.
Paskvan initially calculated 120 feet for the tower, but professional engineer Garrett Lysiak of Owl Engineering of Shoreview, Minn., recommended a height of 150 feet.
"A recommended tower height of 150 feet would provide a 75-foot clearance around the signal path and still clear 75 feet above the ground level," Lysiak wrote in his recommendation. "This height would exceed any present and future building penetrations into the Fresnel layers and exceed the 87-foot height of the new event center, considering the fact the ground elevation drops a few feet to the west."
Paskvan described Roger's Two Way as a "nerve center" for paging for 16 counties
In the Bemidji area, the business provides services to Beltrami County Sheriff's Office, Bemidji Police Department, county and city services, FBI, DEA, first responders and emergency management.
Across 16 counties, it serves nine police departments, four sheriff's offices, 19 first responder groups, eight ambulance services, 20 hospitals and 18 school systems.
A primary service is paging.
"The beauty of paging is that I can take and page a first responder group and all 100 pagers will go off in 5 seconds," Paskvan said. "Cell phones cannot meet that need."
Also, he said, cell phone service has dead spots, but pagers operate on a lower frequency.
"I have a critical need, and I'm very concerned that if my microwave system fades across the lake, all this paging comes to an end and I have no backup at this point," Paskvan said. "The system is redundant and we have two of everything, but they're all emanating from that tower."
Paskvan said he worried that winter weather could bring a breakdown of the system.
"My concern is if I have a big snowstorm, what am I going to do?" he said. "I have no backup. My fade margin is gone, through no fault of my own. ... I can't wait two months, three months to decide this. There are emergency services on this tower that are critical for the surrounding 16 counties. That includes us."
Paskvan said he believes that those who use his services on a daily basis are behind him.
"They are concerned if their primary alerting system is going to be reliable," he said. "That is why I'm here before this commission. I need a solution. I need something."
Beryl Wernberg, 911 communications supervisor and emergency management director for the Beltrami County Sheriff's Office, held up her pager for the commission.
"This is a lifeline for our deputies and our officers," she said, noting that critical confidential information is provided via pager rather than radios.
"This 60-day window makes me stay awake at night worrying about we're going to get messages to our people," Wernberg said, noting that she is missing pages herself at her home and some pages are coming through scrambled.
"Scrambled messages are the difference between life and death," she said.
"A 60-day period is going to put us right in that bad spot," said Tom Johnson, who works with Bemidji Ambulance, Blackduck Ambulance and North Memorial Ambulance.
David Quam, president of the Paul Bunyan Amateur Radio Club, reported that the club has been missing pages.
"The Amateur Radio Club is on the low end of the totem pole," Quam said, "but doctors EMS and law enforcement is very high."
Greg Negard, a member of both the Bemidji City Council and the JPB, appeared before the commission specifically in his role as director of Paul Bunyan Transit.
About 600 messages a day are generated to and from buses, Negard said, noting that the company has been losing messages for three or four months. "We're losing 12 percent of our messages," he said. "We started having problems when the BREC started getting higher."
"For 17 years, the system has been working flawlessly," Paskvan said. "The only thing that changed is the building."
Alternatives
"There are alternatives to putting up a 150-foot tower," said Commissioner Kristy Miller, who abstained from the vote.
Paskvan had explored the alternatives suggested by the city and discussed them in detail with the commission. Putting antennas on the Nymore water tower would be complicated, expensive and difficult to maintain, he said. Installing an underground fiber optic cable would take considerable time and expense, and would involve a third-party company, since Roger's Two Way is a wireless company.
"We would be at the mercy of a third-party company," Paskvan said. "If their system should fail, there's nothing I can do to fix it."
"I think you did a good presentation this evening," Commissioner Janice Moberg told Paskvan, "because you made me change my mind."
"I agree with Janice," Commissioner Richard Slinkman said. "I changed my mind."
Slinkman said either alternative would take a lot of time, which would be a problem with winter just around the corner.
"I didn't create the problem," Paskvan said after the meeting. "I just want it fixed."
Working with Milender and assistant planner Andrew Mack was a very good experience, Paskvan said. "They are very knowledgeable in what they do. They guided me through the process."
He was accompanied by his children and colleagues, Troy Paskvan, director of marketing and operations for Roger's Two Way, and Valeri Johnson, owner of Roger's Wireless.
To see more of The Bemidji Pioneer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.bemidjipioneer.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Bemidji Pioneer, Minn.
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