Tlingit & Haida’s Tidal Network is embarking on a seven-city tour of Southeast communities this month to update people on the organization’s plans for wireless internet service in the region and listen to community concerns.
Tidal Network has encountered differing levels of opposition to its plans to put up telecommunications towers in Wrangell, Sitka, Petersburg and Haines.
“We’re going to see what people say … and then respond to their questions,” Tidal Network director Chris Cropley said last week.
The Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska leadership “wants to take a step back and listen,” Cropley said.
Council President Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson plans to attend all seven of the community meetings.
In addition to Wrangell, listening sessions are planned for Sitka, Klawock, Craig, Kasaan, Hydaburg and Petersburg. Tlingit & Haida Communication manager Saanjin Raeanne Holmes said a meeting in Haines will likely be held in January or February, but the exact date has not yet been determined.
Tidal Network also is conducting a community feedback survey, available online at https://tinyurl.com/TidalNetworkFeedback.
“We have active plans at work in all of the communities,” Cropley said of Tidal Network’s efforts to provide wireless internet services across Southeast, which include putting up towers to fill gaps in service areas.
“Join us to ask questions, offer feedback and help shape the future of broadband and digital equity across our region,” according to the announcement of the seven meetings. Dinner and door prizes will be offered at all of the community meetings.
Tlingit & Haida in 2022 was awarded a $50 million federal grant to build towers and install equipment to provide wireless internet service for unserved and underserved areas across Southeast Alaska. It built a tower at 3 Mile Zimovia Highway in Wrangell this summer — its first in Southeast — and proposed another one near the community but was rejected by Wrangell’s planning and zoning commission in early November.
Tidal Network decided not to appeal the commission decision to the borough assembly. In its denial letter, the commission said the 230-foot-tall tower would be “incompatible with the character” of the neighborhood; the “high visibility from adjoining properties” had not been adequately addressed; and that lights on the tower “would result in adverse impacts on neighboring properties.”
Tidal Network is building a 150-foot tower on Mill Road in Petersburg. Although the organization already has its building permit, several residents spoke out against the tower at the Nov. 17 borough assembly meeting.
The tower is going up on land owned by Tlingit & Haida. The Petersburg borough’s community development director told radio station KFSK that the lot is zoned for industrial use, which allows communication towers. There is no public hearing requirement for building permits.
Tidal Network is in the process of buying a borough-owned lot on Haugen Drive in Petersburg for a second tower. Plans to build a tower in Sitka have encountered community opposition, resulting in a planning commission decision to reject the permit application.
The company has partnered with the Chilkoot Indian Association, but has not yet filed a permit or indicated to the Haines Borough how it will proceed with plans to expand the network here.
Additional, Haines-specific reporting by Rashah McChesney of the Chilkat Valley News.