Whitman County’s Board of Adjustment Dec. 16 granted AT&T permission to locate a cell phone tower on Kamiak Butte and granted a permit to Palouse Grain Growers to expand their operations.
AT&T is going to erect a 123-foot cell tower on private land in the same location that already holds a broadcast tower for public television station KWSU and a cell phone tower for Verizon.
Company representatives were not sure when the tower would be erected. The board unanimously approved a conditional use permit for the tower.
Future cell tower sitings will not need conditional use permits under a plan being considered by the county.
Code changes proposed by Planner Alan Thomson would, among other things, allow him to issue at his discretion permits for cell towers.
Most conditions put on cell towers by the board are standard, and putting those conditions into the code would eliminate the need for public hearings before the board.
The planning commission gave an unofficial thumbs-up to the change earlier this month and will hold a hearing on the proposed code changes Jan. 5.
Palouse Grain Growers got permission to build three grain bins at its facilities just outside the city limits on the Highway 272 exit to Colfax.
The co-op will also add a 100-foot-long weigh scale, a shed for truck dumping and a new spout for train loading.
Assistant Manager Rick Wekenman said the new scale and dump shed are at the top of their list, with the train loader and bins coming later.
He noted the firm’s board of directors has yet to give final approval to the project. The permit allows Palouse Grain Growers to go ahead with the project if the board does give the thumbs up.
The new bins will make room for an additional 200,000 bushels of storage capacity. The present facility can hold 269,000 bushels of grain.
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