County approves Verizon tower on Red House Road property
Pictured is a portion of the farm property where a new Verizon cell tower is to be placed. (Note: The location shown is only approximate and not necessarily an accurate depiction of the tower spot.) (Charles Conrad/Times Virginian)

The Appomattox County Board of Supervisors (BOS) approved a zoning permit request at its August meeting for a 235-foot self-support cell tower at Cole’s Farm LLC in Appomattox. The property is located on Red House Road across from Appomattox County High School (ACHS). Verizon Wireless will be the anchor tenant.

Mark Loubier of Tillman Infrastructure spoke to the supervisors and explained Verizon is leaving its current tower owned by UScellular, which is a half-mile east of the FFA Alumni Association property behind ACHS, for financial reasons and improved performance and expansion capabilities.

“What’s being charged on that tower is about 70% more per month, and that is detrimental to Verizon being able to upgrade their facilities — add new antennas, add new cables, increase bandwidth,” Loubier said. “People aren’t really talking on their phones as much as they used to, they’re watching videos, their apps and everything else. That takes up a lot more bandwidth. So, this move would improve performance from a service standpoint, just allowing Verizon to upgrade their equipment more freely than they would at the UScellular site.”

There’s more to this in the current issue of the Times Virginian newspaper. Support local journalism by purchasing the issue at a local newsstand or subscribing at www.timesvirginian.com/subscriber_services to receive the print edition or view the full article in the e-edition version.

Tags