10 year old's Ham Radio tower must come down

The Mt. Pleasant Plan Commission (in Racine County, Wisconsin) decided Wednesday to deny a family's request to keep their ham radio tower.

The Markstrom family has a 62 foot tower in their Mt. Pleasant yard.  They say it is used for emergency communications and it's a favorite hobby for their 10 year old son Samm.  Samm has Cerebral Palsy.  He's won awards for using his radio to help others.

Samm Markstrom told commissioners if he has to lower it to 18 feet, he won't be able to communicate with others.  "If it were restricted at that height, we should just rip the tower out anyway, because we wouldn't be able to get out of Racine," he said.

The Markstroms never got a permit when they erected the tower.

Read the full TMJ4 article and watch the video report at
http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/96513304.html