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Following a joint public hearing with the Charlotte County Planning Commission Aug. 14, the Charlotte County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to approve an application from U.S. Cellular for a cellphone tower.
The application is to construct a tower on property owned by Lewis and Betty Martin at 2868 Sunny Side Road in Saxe.

During the joint public hearing, Bridgette Sinnott, who represents Shore Holders and F&S Enterprises in Phenix spoke in support of the application. “I am in support of additional cellphone towers in this county,” said Sinnott. “We desperately need the resources.”

Drakes Branch resident, Ken Townsend also expressed his support, “Any type of things we can do as far as getting communications the way we need to have it in the county we need to get it.” he said.
According to the application by U.S. Cellular, the company is looking to install a 108-foot monopod telecommunication tower. The parcel size for the tower is 10,000 square feet.
The purpose of the tower is to offload data volume from the existing tower on Country Road in Saxe, which has a 35 percent overload occurring.

As part of the proposed conditions, the tower is to be fully operational within two years of the application approval date. According to the listed terms, extensions may be granted upon written request by U.S. Cellular to the zoning administrator, 45 days before lapse of approval. A six-month extension may be given at the discretion of the zoning administrator. Further extensions may be authorized only by the Board of Supervisors’ approval upon U.S. Cellular showing a good cause.

In June, supervisors also approved an application for a U.S. Cellular tower to be constructed on pastureland owned by Jeff and Susan Williams at 6107 Thomas Jefferson Hwy. in Cullen.