From: "Steve Morrow" <xxxx@yyy.zzz>

Date: Thu, 3/3/2011 10:03:33 AM

To: "planning"

Subject: Taormina Towers

The following comment is in reference to Taormina Tower SUP application:

The following was submitted as part of the SUP application:

"Tom Taormina became Emergency Coordinator for the local ARES1 and RACES2 emergency communications systems. See Exhibit C-1. These services are affiliated with the Department of Homeland Security, see Exhibit C-3, and the American Red Cross. He also became a member of the Storey County Local Emergency Planning Commission (LEPC), becoming familiar to Building Inspector Haymore and County Manager Whitten. Over the years, Whitten, Haymore and Taormina discussed the role of his ham radio station as first-tier backup communications for the County during emergencies. The concept was that Taormina’s unique skills (among other things, he is a former NASA engineer), combined with his ham radio station, would provide previously unavailable links for VHF county and inter-county communications, and High Frequency links to national emergency centers."

According to the text presented above from the SUP application and other reoccurring text throughout the application, the applicant is basing, a large part of, the necessity of the towers on providing emergency services to Storey County and surrounding areas.  Therefore, the applicant should be subject to the same staffing requirements as any other emergency service, providing 24 hour, 7 days a week service to the community.  For example, if the applicant went on vacation or was simply away from their home at the time an emergency occurred their "service" would not be useful to the community.  I would expect that the applicant would have to keep logs of the qualified staffing of his communication system to be on call 24/7 at the applicant's home in case of an emergency and "all else fails."  If the basis of the County's decision to approve the SUP application is based solely on amateur hobby usage then all language regarding the applicant providing emergency services to the community should be removed from the application.  The "emergency services" argument can be misleading to the reader in thinking that the applicant is actually providing these services when the primary intent of the system is really to chat with people around the world for fun.

Regards,

Steve Morrow

21715 Sazarac Rd