“Nights with Elaina” will continue to be heard loud and clear.

Elaina D. Smith is an on-air personality on Cat Country 96, broadcast on WCTO-FM via its commercial communications tower atop South Mountain in Salisbury Township.

The Salisbury Township Zoning Hearing Board voted 4-0 to approve a special exception and variances in the appeal by VB Nimbus, LLC, to reconstruct and expand the Cat Country tower, 1830 Savercool Ave.

Zoning hearing board Vice Chair Attorney Ian Baxter moved, seconded by planning commission member Ron Evans, to grant the special exception.

In approving numerous variances for the tower, zoners stipulated information must be submitted to Salisbury Township Planning and Zoning Officer Kerry Rabold.

Rabold denied the zoning application Dec. 9, 2021, to reconstruct the tower.

Her interpretation and the zoning board decision hinged on the definition of “reconstruct.”

A new tower will be built in close proximity to the old tower to ensure no interruption to Cat Country programming.

Attorney Richard J. Lemanowicz, of Lower Gwynedd, Montgomery County, represented WCTO. Testifying on behalf of WCTO were Robert Klima, chief engineer, Cumulus Media, WCTO and Chris Scheks, director, Telecommunications, GPD Group, Akron, Ohio.

The 139-foot-high tower was built in 1951. The new tower will be 175-feet-high.

“Very little will change as to what’s on the property,” Lemanowicz said.

The property is in the CR, Conservation-Residential zoning district.

“There are multiple towers in the area,” Lemanowicz said.

“This is going to be a skinny tower,” Klima said. The base of the tower will be 25-square-feet.

“The application was denied because, in my opinion, it is not being reconstructed,” Rabold said.

“A new tower is being constructed in a new location and at a new height,” Rabold said.

Opined Salisbury Zoning Hearing Board Solicitor Attorney Victor F. Cavacini, “If you’re going to reconstruct something, it’s on an existing structure.”

“In this case, reconstruction isn’t possible because it would interrupt service,” Baxter said.

“An argument could be made that this could fall under reconstruction,” Baxter said.

Baxter noted the FCC requires a field survey.

“We would not object to requiring the reports,” Lemanowicz said.

Approval of the special exception for the tower includes the following:

•No building or facility may be used as an office or as a broadcast studio.

•Two paved, on-site parking spaces with lighting required.

•Information pertaining to radio-frequency interference with existing communication services required.

•Information on the Root Mean Square field intensity of Electromagnetic Radiation from the applicant’s antenna pertaining to American National Standards Institute Standard C95.3 required.

•The tower can be painted in red and white stripes as required by the Federal Aviation Administration.

•A buffer of natural screening which blends in with existing vegetation required.

•The tower must be engineered to accommodate additional new users.

•The tower base shall be surrounded by an 8-foot-high, secure fence.

•Information on the location pertaining to the necessity to satisfy signal coverage requirements mandated by the FCC required.

•A copy of the applicant’s FCC construction permit required.

•A technical description of the facility, including the capacity of the tower and the number and type of antennas that can be accommodated, required.

•A statement from the FCC, FAA and state aeronautics division pertaining to each one’s applicable regulations required.

•An intermodulation analysis with information pertaining to radio-frequency interference to existing towers or transmitting facilities or communications service reception by other property owners required.

In other business, planners voted to re-elect Attorney Kent Herman, chair; Attorney Ian Baxter, vice chair and approve Attorney Victor F. Cavacini, Gross McGinley Law Firm, as solicitor and Attorney William Fries, alternate solicitor.

The Salisbury Township Zoning Hearing Board next meets 7 p.m. Feb. 9 in the municipal building, 2900 S. Pike Ave.