2009-07-01 TANTHEM - Laserfiche WebLink

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WOODWARD: Aye. COTTLE: Motion passes five to zero. WOODWARD: All right. Very good. You’ll be notified writing, sir. Did you have something to say? We’re actually kind of through with this, but if you had something you wanted to tell me, go ahead. FOX: No, I’m sorry. I just thought you were going to ask if the applicant was okay with the conditions. And we just had one question I wanted to bring to your attention. It’s kind of, it’s kind of odd, it’s Condition No. 3. The Planning Department asked if the tower could be painted to blend in with the surroundings. And Anthem definitely wants to minimize the visual impacts on the community; and painting of towers is typical. We almost always paint the towers to blend in with the surroundings. Unfortunately, this area of the Hamakua coastline has, is an area where native Hawaiian sea birds apparently migrate from the mountains to the sea. And the telecommunication industry, the different wireless service providers have to produce a number of environmental reports. And one is an FCC NEPA checklist. Because of the seabirds in this area, there’s something that the FCC and the Fish and Wildlife Service is requiring us to do. It’s called a Section 7 consultation. WOODWARD: Yeah, I saw that. It’s about 20 pages that is in the back of this thing. FOX It’s fairly long, and there was a lot involved with that. And because there is the slight risk that one of these seabirds could hit the tower, I guess, when it’s flying or going from its sleeping place on the mountain down to its fishing grounds -. WOODWARD: They’re nocturnal. They’re just, they fly in the dark, and they crash into things. FOX: Well, Anthem did complete the Section 7 compliance. But a letter from the Fish and Wild Life Service to the FCC dated December 19, 2008, which was made part of the application, states that the US Fish and Wild Life Service is recommending that the pole be painted as bright a shade of white as local government agencies will permit in order to increase the tower’s visibility to Newell’s shearwater and Hawaiian Petrel seabirds. WOODWARD: Very good, just do it. I understand where you’re coming from. FOX: Well, the problem with it is if we paint this tower bright white it’s going to be a lot more visible. We almost always paint them brown or green cause that really blends in a lot better. And it looks like Fish and Wildlife is giving us some flexibility there. I mean, they say shade of white so, you know, we can kind of work on that with the Department. I just wanted to make sure you folks are okay with that. WOODWARD: I would suggest that you just, if there’s a question that comes up that you just handle that directly with the Planning Department. 7 EXHIBIT B