COURTLAND
Southampton County could be getting as many as six new cell towers in the near future. The Apex Tower Company, a New Jersey-based cell tower construction firm, has submitted proposals for two additional T Mobile towers to the Southampton County Planning Commission, which held a public hearing on the matter on Thursday.

The Southampton County Board of Supervisors had already approved the construction of one T Mobile tower near Newsoms in June of this year and three Verizon towers in 2013, 2015 and this past January respectively, to be located off Millfield Road, Johnsons Mill Road and Plank Road.

The two additional proposed towers would be located off of Ivor Road and Little Texas Road, and only these two would be built by Apex. The other four are each being constructed by different companies.

The Planning Commission recommended that the Southampton County Board of Supervisors move forward with the proposed tower on Ivor Road, but tabled the Little Texas Road tower until next month after a few county residents raised objections during the meeting.

The Board of Supervisors will hold a second public hearing concerning the towers, after duly advertising the hearing as required by law, at a later date, and will make a final decision at the end of the second hearing.

According to Apex’s senior vice president, Craig Clifton, the company will likely seek board approval for the new towers sometime around Dec. 19, with construction beginning in January.

“A lot of that’s dependent on the weather and how the permitting process develops,” Clifton said, adding that he expects construction of each tower to take approximately 30 days.

One part of the permitting process that Apex has already completed is obtaining the results of various environmental impact studies mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Communications Commission.

According to Beth Lewis, Southampton County’s community development director, none of the other four towers are under construction as of yet. No date has been announced for the Board of Supervisors’ hearing yet either.