Bell Mobility plans new communications tower in Whitehorse
At a Whitehorse City Council meeting last night, Bell Mobility heard broad support for its plan to build a communication tower near the Yukon Transportation Museum.
The 25-metre tower would improve wireless service at the Whitehorse airport and in Hillcrest, a neighbourhood across the Alaska Highway from the airport and the museum.
Janna Powell, executive director and curator at the Yukon Transportation Museum, argued to council that the tower would be a good fit with the museum.
"The usual translation of Yukon transportation primarily involve trucks, boats, boots, dogs,” said Janna Powell,. “I would like to challenge that in the respect that those are modes of transportation without a story. Transportation has always been, and always will be, the movement of people, stuff and ideas.”
Powell also says hosting the tower near the museum would also provide the non-profit organization with another source of income. Bell Mobility will pay the museum rent if the tower is built on its land.
Powell isn't the only one who approves of the tower site.
“I would just like to say how I pleased I am with the outcome of the process, especially the location,” said Jim Gilpin, who lives in Hillcrest. “I think it's a win-win-win situation.”
The city's administrators recommended council support Bell Mobility's plan for construction of the tower.
Bell Mobility needs a letter of concurrence from the city to give to Industry Canada for the project to be approved.
Council still needs to vote on whether the tower will be built.
The final agreement will be between the Yukon Government and Bell Mobility.
