Kirkwood Communications Tower Reportedly on Hold, For Now

According to the Webster-Kirkwood Times, plans for a 190-foot communications tower in Kirkwood Park along Couch Avenue have been put on hold at least a month.

The Webster-Kirkwood Times reports the decision to delay the plan for the tower is the result of a suggestion from Chief Administrative Officer Mike Brown.

The tower would be part of a network of towers around the area that would help provide coordinated communications among first responders. The following details about the plans for communications towers around St. Louis County came from a portion of the Webster-Kirkwood Times article.

The nexus of the network will be a 32,000-square-foot, $16-million communications center under construction in Ohlendorf West Park in Ballwin. Funding comes from a sales tax approved by county voters in 2009. The system is to be complete by the end of the year.

 

The newspaper said the county chose a different site near a city water tank to serve the Kirkwood area, but a spokesman for the county agency spearheading the project said major water lines in the area made that location problematic.

The article explains that due to previous soil issues, that storage tank was relocated and now there are concerns over the soil where the communications tower could be built. The plan is on hold while the soil is being tested at the proposed site.

There are also concerns from residents over the planned construction of the tower.

According to the Webster-Kirkwood Times, the new tower is 10 feet taller than Kirkwood's zoning code permits and it would "dominate the landscape in the southwest section of Kirkwood Park."

(Read the entire Webster-Kirkwood Times article here.)