BY EARNEST WINSTON and JANE PRENDERGAST
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS -- The city of Highland Heights ordered builders Friday to stop work on a digital telephone tower and to tear down what they'd already put up.
Zoning Administrator Jean Rauf went to the site on MacDonald Lane with stop-work orders for the property owner, David Cawood, and the crew building the monopole for Sprint. She said late Friday afternoon that the work had begun without the proper permits.
"I told them to get their structure down immediately," she said.
If they do not comply, the city could take legal action in court, Ms. Rauf said.
A group of neighborhood people, including Carol Ernst, a 66-year-old widow, are protesting the pole. Mrs. Ernst owns 74 acres on the hilltop overlooking the Ohio River and says the pole partially blocks her view of the Ohio River. She uses the property, where she has two houses, as a nature preserve for Boy Scouts, Northern Kentucky University students and other civic groups.
She said the pole will ruin future development on her property. "My parents loved this place and tried to keep it as natural as possible for the wildlife," she said.
Both sides have been debating the pole before the Kentucky Public Service Commission. The agency has not made its decision.
The tower was to be used to help Sprint extend its digital cellular phone system into Kentucky, said Phil Taliaferro, Mrs. Ernst's attorney. On top of the monopole is 10 feet of lightning rods and platforms with six antenna, he said.
"This is a case of a widow fighting to preserve nature against a multibillion dollar-company," Mr. Taliaferro said. "This is truly a David-and-Goliath fight. But don't forget that Goliath, as big as he was, he lost."
