By Emily Stonehouse

A group of concerned citizens are questioning the decisions of local council when it comes to the development of a 90 metre Rogers cell tower on Minnicock Lake Road. “The area is a designated wetland by the county,” said Dysart resident Michael Butz. “They’ve been making a terrible mess.” 

The tower has been a point of contention since 2022, when the project was first proposed to the former sitting council. At the time, the proposal was shut down by councillors, only to be revisited less than a month later, and approved to move forward on Aug. 23 of the same year. 

“I have no idea why they changed their minds,” said Butz, “I never got a proper explanation. I assume they were getting a lot of pressure from Rogers, but the whole thing was really rammed through. They chose to ignore the official plan.” 

In a rural community where zoning and bylaws are notoriously difficult due to the stickiness of metaphorical red tap, Butz and his neighbours find the speed at which this proposal is moving ahead to be suspicious. “Rogers and their reps did not want any public input, because public input would set a precedent,” said Joanne MacDonald, a Dysart resident whose home would be impacted by the tower. 

And she’s not the only one affected by the build. 

A group has sprouted up on Facebook, titled Enough Cell Towers in Haliburton, where members are vocal about council’s decision to move ahead with the tower. There are concerns about the health and safety of the towers themselves, as well as the danger to the local environment, and the property values of the homes in direct vicinity of the proposed tower. Over 100 concerned citizens signed a petition, and delivered it to the former council to voice their concerns over the build. 

While the tower was approved by a former sitting council, current mayor of Dysart, Murray Fearrey, was approached for his thoughts regarding the ongoing build. “I have no planning information that would indicate that it was a wetland,” he told the Echo. ”However, if the soil doesn’t stabilize I would wonder about Rogers going ahead and installing a tower. I’m sure engineers will be consulted.”

The tower was the first project to come to the community through the Eastern Ontario Regional Network’s (EORN) cell gap initiative.

From the 2022 council meeting in which the initiative was first proposed, EORN had set forth a lofty goal of 99 per cent connectivity across the county by 2025. The gaps in internet access is a common vexation amongst locals and visitors alike; but Butz believes that this tower isn’t the answer. 

“We have been doing our research, and looking at a ton of topographical maps,” he said. “We found another spot. On Crown Land. It’s within 10 kilometres of the proposed site, with no residence within a kilometre.” 

But Butz says that no one was interested in hearing his suggestions. 

So much so, that they muted his microphone while he tried to voice his concerns at a recent council meeting. “I was muted because I made the suggestion that it was wet. No one wanted to listen.” 

He noted that he has recently seen a Blanding’s turtle at the site, which is threatened under the Ontario Endangered Species Act, and officially endangered under the federal Species at Risk Act. And that’s just one of the many species trying to survive in the area that’s currently being torn apart. 

Construction on the site started at the end of the summer, and so far, without any environmental assessments, it does not seem to be going smoothly. “They went to put an anchor in, and the excavator started sinking [into the mud],” said Butz. “There’s never been any filter cloth, and I think the excavator must have overheated. There was a huge amount of smoke.”

Butz and his supporting neighbours shared that they hope the whole project folds, in light of the challenges faced with the property. “I’m hoping they shut the whole thing down,” he said. “That property is something that’s supposed to be there for our grandchildren.” 

At the time of publication, construction had been temporarily halted. 

The Echo will continue coverage as this story develops.