AT&T Cellphone Tower Near Voyageurs Park Rejected

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - AT&T has been denied in its request to build a 350-foot cell phone tower near Voyageurs National Park.

The Koochiching County Board voted this week against the tower, which AT&T wanted to erect about 3 1/2 miles south of the park boundary near International Falls.

County administrator Teresa Jaksa says commissioners were willing to help identify other possible sites, but AT&T said this was the most viable site.

It marks the second clash this month over AT&T's efforts to erect a cell tower on the edge of a major natural area in northern Minnesota.

AT&T wants to build a 450-foot tower near Ely that would be visible in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. The Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness sued to block the plan, and a court ruling is pending.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)