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Crews on Tuesday afternoon work the site where a 302-foot-tall telecommunications tower toppled over Saturday night outside of Minster in Jackson Township. No one was injured and the cause of the tower's collapse is unknown at this time.
MINSTER - A 302-foot-high telecommunications tower just east of Minster came crashing down Saturday night on North Corporation Road, toppling power lines and cutting into the asphalt.
However, no one was injured in the incident.
The steel tower had just gone up the day before at 3615 Shelby Road. For an unknown reason it tumbled over at about 10 p.m. onto North Corporation Road, a few hundred yards from the intersection at East Shelby Road, according to Auglaize County Emergency Management Agency Director Troy Anderson.
"We had 25-30 mph winds, but we had around 50 mph wind gusts for a very short period of time. However, that tower should be able to withstand around 90 mph wind gusts, is what I was told," Anderson said, adding that one of the companies involved with the project was probing the cause of the incident.
The tower came to a rest over North Corporation Road and a nearby woods.
Crews on Tuesday afternoon work the site where a 302-foot-tall telecommunications tower toppled over Saturday night outside of Minster in Jackson Township. No one was injured and the cause of the tower's collapse is unknown at this time.
"It did leave some marks in the road. When it hit, it did cut into the asphalt," Anderson said, noting he's unsure about the extent of the damage or if the road will need repaired.
Jackson Township Trustee Jim Steinemann said the damage to the asphalt appeared to be minor.
"The top 30 feet (of the tower) went into the woods across the road, but it didn't damage anything in there," Steinemann said. "It kind of fell between the trees, so there was no damage in the woods. It did take two power lines down, and they were repaired by 5:30 in the morning."
Steinemann said a few homes went without electricity until an AES crew was able to restore power.
"That's the end of the line there, so there wasn't too many," he said. "I would say maybe three or four households, at the most."
Steinemann said the road was closed through early Sunday morning.
The Auglaize County Sheriff's Office and Minster Police Department were the first to respond to the scene, Anderson said, noting he was called at about 1 a.m. Sunday.
"They were asking for some of my team to go out and help with road closure," he said.
Crews on Tuesday afternoon work the site where a 302-foot-tall telecommunications tower toppled over Saturday night outside of Minster in Jackson Township. No one was injured and the cause of the tower's collapse is unknown at this time.
At the scene, Anderson said he spoke with a Verizon representative and others. "When I talked to the Verizon rep that was there, (I was told) there's an existing tall tower on the property and they're going to take their stuff off of it and move it over to the new one when it's up," Anderson said.
However, Verizon confirmed on Tuesday that it does not own the tower, and a spokesperson said the company would have no comment on the incident. The tower appears to be owned by Tillman Infrastructure, a nationwide carrier tower and communications infrastructure company. The company website identifies the location near Minster as one of its tower sites, but The Daily Standard was not able to reach out to Tillman for comment before press time.
Anderson said he was informed that the company installing the tower is Stronghold Construction of Columbus. When contacted for a statement about the incident, a Stronghold Construction representative directed the newspaper to the company's chief operating officer, who did not respond to a phone message.
"They said they just put the tower up on Friday, and it came down Saturday night around 10 p.m.," Anderson said. "It was installed with the guide cables … is the way I understood it."
Steinemann said local officials decided to leave the tower where it rested.
"We didn't want to move anything because of the liability issues with it falling because we figured there was something wrong with it," he said. "The tower company … that put it up, they came in early Sunday morning and moved it, right around daylight. They just pulled it off the road, basically."
Anderson said he believes plans are in the works to put up a new tower.
"My understanding is there would be another tower eventually going up," he said. "But again … my understanding from talking to one of the gentlemen there, (is that) after everybody comes in and reviews to see what actually happened, looking at the wind speeds that night and things like that, would determine their next step."
Crews on Tuesday afternoon work the site where a 302-foot-tall telecommunications tower toppled over Saturday night outside of Minster in Jackson Township. No one was injured and the cause of the tower's collapse is unknown at this time.
Crews on Tuesday afternoon work the site where a 302-foot-tall telecommunications tower toppled over Saturday night outside of Minster in Jackson Township. No one was injured and the cause of the tower's collapse is unknown at this time.
