The polls are closed! Unfortunately, they closed earlier than anyone anticipated. The "tower people" won and the county has decided to start erecting this 'thing' next month. Progress you know.

sorry to hear that we beat down two attempts here and they gave up.

Caosesvida, the decision to erect the tower was no doubt made before the hearing. The hearing was a mere formality. (translated= waste of time...Done deal!)

THe Herald Mail is doing a story this Saturday and publishing letters both pro and con. The link is below. The folks who are opposed to the tower are made to feel very guilty....ie...the tower will save lives of emergency responders. (I'm not gonna get into it here...long story and all that) 2 sides to every story.

View the story Saturday if you're interested. It should be interesting. (to me at least) I don't know what stance the media will take.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Herald Mail Hagerstown Md

I dont want to rock the boat or cause a big issue.

With that being said. Here it goes.

With urban sprawl taking over the whole area what do you expect. I grew up just a few miles from there. I used to live on garretts mill road. I could say the same thing you are saying about the tower about the houses in the picture. Ten years ago they were not there. Just like all the house to the right of the picture that are not showed. It used to be fields and woods. I dont get it. Masses of people move to the undisturbed country and then complain when the country becomes the city. Get used to it. Its only going to get worse. Look at Brunswick. Small town. Now there is a 1500 house development going in. Small town is no longer small. Wait ten years and there will be no more farms from that picture to DC. But who's to blame???? I dont have an answer to that. Cant blame the hard working farmers that are working their butts off and sitting in a gold mine worth millions in the real estate market. IMO opinion its the "city" folk that want to live in the country. Driving up housing prices. Making our commute worse. Turning our small towns and country living into urban disaster. Look at Louden County VA. Wow has that places changed. What in the world is this area turning into???? I dont know. Thats why I moved North. The sprawl it not nearly as bad up here in PA as it is back "home". Its not even really home anymore.

I remember when the Golden Mile in Frederick was farm land and Im not even old......yet.

My comments are not directed at the OP at all. Just venting some issues I have with the area.

Isn't this whole thread a bit off topic.

Aesthetics and land usage are very relevent to the whole gardening experience, I think.

My whole gardening scheme had to change when a new neighbor removed a shrub border at the berm of a small bank abutting our property and erected a chain link fence. Towers are a similar disaster.

I see nothing off-topic about discussing those issues in a thread that began the way this one did.

Hey Bill, Sadly, what you say is true.

You may recall, a few years ago the county called for a moratorium on new construction. This happened in part because wells were drying up. Also development was raging out of control. By the time the moratorium was lifted there was an increased demand for housing.

This area is known for tourists as in hikers, bikers, history and nature buffs. Harper's Ferry relies on tourism to support the town. You don't visit here expecting to see 200' tall metal latticework towers, billboards or Walmarts.

Since the pic above was taken there have been 3 new houses built on the far right of the photo. 11 new houses in all and I don't have a problem with that.

It's when they plop down 1500 houses on 200 acres...Which btw, will block the view of the Harper's Ferry Gap (which is over 5 miles away) from the rest of the folks from Brunswick FOREVER. Sad, sad.

Btw, the house I live in was built in 1941 and it needed lots of work. Many of the building materials we've used to renovate were recycled from various places. In fact, just last weekend I bought enough crown molding from a yard sale to do 4 rooms for 70$. All I have to do is paint it. But that's off topic...;-)

Seriously tho...thank you for the comments.

As a kid we used to sit on Rt 17 and watch the harpers ferry fire works. LOL small world

I do agree that the tower could be put elsewhere, but the fact is they wont put it anywhere where a house could be built in the future.

The area where it is going it kinda wasted space being its behind the liquor store and motel. I doubt anyone would ever build a home there.

I dont really understand the need for a comm. tower there anyway. I get cell service all the way from Brunswick down to 67 and up to Boonsboro????

to put this back on topic. My cousin lives over the mountain in the right of the photo. We used to garden over an acre. I remember having to plant and pick taters as a kid. I hated doing that but we grew enough for my parents and them to have taters all winter long.

I threw some gardening into the post ;)

"The area where it is going it kinda wasted space being its behind the liquor store and motel. I doubt anyone would ever build a home there."

Bill, actually, that knoll contains almost 27 acres. 1 acre is owned by the county and the other 26 acres is owned by a man who wanted to build houses there. Problem was he tried to pull a fast one over on the BOCC and his plan was shot down. He bought that land about 6 yrs ago from the Martin family who used to own the motel.

It's a long and sordid tale but the man who presently owns it hired a lawyer in order to circumvent the zoning law so he could build more houses than the zoning permits. Believe me, that site has a million dollar view.

I too hated being FORCED to work in the garden as a child. My job was to water all the young plants using a pail of water and a tin can. I also had to pick beans. Funny how things change isn't it?