Coast Guard seeks taller radio tower; view is issue

BUXTON

The Coast Guard is proposing that a new radio tower - more than 100 feet taller than the existing tower - be built in the shadow of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse as part of an upgrade of its search-and-rescue communications system.

Known as Rescue 21, the system - already in place in Hampton Roads, the Eastern Shore and seven locations in North Carolina - is the mariners' version of 911 and enables the Coast Guard to pinpoint the location and identity of a distressed mariner.

Historic preservationists argue that the 525-foot tower proposed for Buxton will be a greater blight on the view around the 208-foot-tall lighthouse, and they want it built elsewhere.

The Coast Guard contends, however, that the replacement tower - which will also have

a taller lightning rod - will be similar to the existing tower and won't be more visually obtrusive.

Photographic simulations with the draft environmental assessment don't support the Coast Guard's argument, said Renee Gledhill-Earley, environmental review coordinator for the State Historic Preservation Office.

"If you look out the top of the lighthouse, it's right in your face," she said, referring to the existing tower near Cape Point. "If you're standing on the ground, it's right in your face.

"The visual is adversely affecting the historic resource. The lighthouse should be the most prominent feature in the landscape."

Gledhill-Earley said the Coast Guard has not explained why the new tower could not be put at the former site of Group Cape Hatteras in Buxton, where it would not affect any historic properties.

In addition, she said, her office has no evidence that it reviewed the existing tower, leaving open the question whether it is in compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act. The preservation office is charged with administering the law, which requires effects on designated historic properties to be mitigated, minimized or avoided.

Thomas A. Tansey at the Coast Guard Rescue 21 project office handling the Buxton project was unavailable for comment.

The proposed tower would be built about 50 feet southwest of the existing 425-foot tower, on 11 acres near Cape Point owned by the Coast Guard. According to the draft environmental assessment, the structure would be supported with 24 guy wires with bird flight diverters and be anchored in three places by concrete foundations within a 400-foot radius.

In comments to the Coast Guard, the National Park Service requested that the taller tower be unpainted in order to lessen the visual impact, said Doug Stover, a historian with Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Stover said the existing orange-and-white tower is visible from the base of the lighthouse, and even more so from the balcony. If the proposed tower were left its steel-gray color, high-density white strobe lighting would be required for daytime.

Visual issues aside, the new tower will be a good thing for the Outer Banks, said Sandy Sanderson, director of Dare County Emergency Management.

"It will be a more substantial tower with more structural integrity that's more likely to sustain any weather impacts," he said.

The $1 billion nationwide Rescue 21 system was first installed in Atlantic City and the Eastern Shore in 2005. It is in place at 20 of the Coast Guard's 39 sectors and air stations, according to Richard V. Kanehl at the Coast Guard's Office of Strategic Planning & Communication.

Buxton and Cedar Island are the sites of the last new towers planned for North Carolina.

The technology improves the clarity and range of the signal as well as the information provided, said Lt. John Strasburg, chief of the command center at Coast Guard Sector North Carolina.

Strasburg cited a Father's Day rescue near Camp Lejeune where the new equipment prevented confusion about the location of a capsized vessel, resulting in everyone's being promptly saved.

"It's been a significant increase in capability," he said.

Dare County, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Park Service, and the state Division of Marine Fisheries have antennas on the existing tower. It has not been decided what antennas will be on the replacement tower.

Andrea Probst, Rescue 21 consultant, said the Coast Guard hopes to release the final plan in the fall. The public comment period closed Aug. 28.

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com