The Reno County Commission again took up the issue of granting a zoning request from Verizon Wireless to build a cell phone tower in the county despite the objections from one land owner who has repeatedly told the commission, he doesn’t want to look at the structure.

Any other proposals to move the tower where it wouldn’t interfere with farming was unacceptable due to close proximity to a road and power lines.

Commissioner Brad Dillon stated that with a 6-1 vote by the planning board to approve the tower, there is no reason to go against their recommendation. With that, the commission approved the special use permit to erect the cell phone tower.

Also Tuesday, the commission discussed at length it’s options for dealing with a 20-acre tract of land in the 8900 block of North Halstead which has 9-run down mobile homes sitting on the land. The county wants to use a 1998 resolution to have them declared unsafe structures. The resolution was implemented over an old burned up restaurant that sat west of K-61 Highway for a considerable time before it was finally torn down.

The sticking point for the county that mobile homes are considered personal property as opposed to being a structure. However, County Counselor Joe O’ Sullivan sees it a bit different.
He says if you have a mobile home that’s on a permanent foundation, that would meet the definition of a structure. However, whether they can use that resolution for the demolishing of these mobile homes is still up for debate.

The matter was before the commission for discussion only Tuesday and no action on the issue was taken.