BY ALLEN HOWARD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ANDERSON TOWNSHIP -- A telecommunications company has ignored a court order and continued to build a tower at the Five Mile Road exit off Interstate 275 while the dispute is on appeal.
GTE Wireless told the township, which had obtained the stay from a Franklin County common pleas judge last week, that the stay did not apply.
"The stay of execution does not act as an injunction preventing construction," said Becky Cox, marketing and communication administrator for GTE Wireless. "We are proceeding, as is our legal right under our contract with ODOT (Ohio Department of Transportation)."
The township is trying to prevent GTE Wireless and AirTouch from building towers at the Five Mile Road and U.S. 52 exits off I-275, citing residential zoning in the area.
AirTouch has not started work at the U.S. 52 exit.
"We immediately sought and obtained a stay after the judge ruled against us, and we thought this would stop the work," Henry Dolive, township administrator, said Thursday.
Mr. Dolive posted copies of the stay at the Five Mile site last week. He said lawyers for the township filed an appeal Wednesday of the decision issued last week by Judge Patrick M. McGrath.
"I think this is frustrating that this issue gets bungled up with legal technicalities," Mr. Dolive said.
The companies sued in Franklin County Common Pleas Court earlier this year to prevent the township from interfering with an agreement among the companies and ODOT to build the towers on state-owned land.
The township countersued, asking the court to order the companies to go through its zoning procedure, requiring them to prove that they couldn't co-locate with another tower company already in the area, or that they could not find another suitable location. Russ Jackson, president of the Anderson Township trustees, said they were not against building towers in the township, but the sites selected are zoned residential.
Judge McGrath ruled in the companies' favor, stating that they did not have to abide by the township zoning procedure because they were classified as a public utility when they entered the agreement with ODOT.
Mr. Jackson said a Hamilton County inspector visited the construction site Wednesday to stop the work, but was told by ODOT to get off the property because the land is owned by the state and the county did not have jurisdiction.
"We do not intend to back down," Mr. Jackson said. He said other townships have sent a total of $16,700 to help in the court fight. CP:two lines for b3cranee Despite a posted court order not to continue work on a cellular tower, workers on Five Mile Road dig footing for the erection of the tower Thursday.
