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Controversial tower to get landscaping to help soften site

by Judith Hruz

Editor

The communications tower erected on the west side of Georgia Avenue at the Intercounty Connector interchange, a source of strong objection for Olney residents, is getting a facelift of sorts.

Thanks to an effort by the community and state legislators, the State Highway Administration (SHA) is adding landscaping and other efforts to soften the appearance of the tower.

“We realized last year they [SHA] weren’t going to have a landscaping plan for the site, so we started last winter trying to get one,” said Jeffrey Weiler, president of The Preserve at Small’s Nursery homeowner’s association, who first made the community aware of the state’s efforts to erect what was then planned as a 349-foot communications tower on the site.

For decades, the Greater Olney Civic Association (GOCA) had fought to preserve the rural entry way into Olney.

Groups of residents battled the project — a joint project of the Maryland Department of Information Technology and Montgomery County, with SHA as the applicant because it owns the site — in 2018 and 2019 after learning it was to be erected without residents having a chance to comment.

Ultimately, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said the tower would be built on the site.

One positive outcome, however, is that the tower was reduced in height to 268 feet.

“That made a huge difference,” Weiler said.

He is now hoping that trees planted early this month will help with aesthetics.

In all, the plan called for 17 Green Giant arborvitaes, six Virginia pine and three Autumn Brilliance serviceberry trees.

The arborvitaes will grow up to three feet in height each year and can grow up to 50 to 60 feet tall, according to the SHA. The pines and serviceberries are designed to provide variations in texture, size and color.

Weiler said the trees are not all visible from the street, but he is happy to have them over nothing at all.

The state is also planning to install vertical slats in the chain-link fencing to further obscure the site.

Weiler said the slats will be “a big help in blocking the view of the building.”

County Executive Marc Elrich on July 29 helped launch the county’s $42 million new public safety radio system, which is designed to improve public safety communications across the county and with neighboring jurisdictions.

The system includes the tower on Georgia Avenue near the Intercounty Connector (ICC/Route 200) in Olney that groups of area residents protested in 2018 and 2019 after learning it was to be erected without residents having a chance to comment.

Elrich had come to the Olney community’s defense. He had agreed that a new communications system was critical but wanted to provide residents with an opportunity to comment and even provide alternative sites for the tower.

The system has been operating since March. It was deployed and will be maintained by Motorola Solutions.

The radio communication system is an infrastructure project that will serve approximately 8,000 active radios with the capacity up to 150,000 radios. The system will be utilized by the first responders and dispatchers of the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, the Montgomery County Police Department, the Emergency Communications Center (911), the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, the Montgomery County Department of Corrections, the county Department of Transportation and local municipalities.

The new Motorola ASTRO 25 radio system replaces an aging radio network that had become increasingly vulnerable to disruptions. The network has a total of 22 antenna sites, which is an increase from 11 before the upgrade. The county now has 11 new radio sites that will provide improved in-building and overall coverage.

The capacity of the system is 80 percent greater than that of the previous system to support additional radio users. Radios have been updated for compatibility with the new network. In addition, the security of first responder communications has been enhanced with radio verification and encryption, the county reported.

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