A telecommunications tower off Chicken Coop Road in Blyn has been completed. The tower expands cell service via Verizon Wireless, and it also includes communication equipment from Clallam County Fire District 3 and the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe representatives said. (Photo courtesy of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe)

A telecommunications tower off Chicken Coop Road in Blyn has been completed. The tower expands cell service via Verizon Wireless, and it also includes communication equipment from Clallam County Fire District 3 and the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe representatives said. (Photo courtesy of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe)

Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe’s telecommunciations tower running

Structure contains equipment for fire, sheriff’s office

BLYN — Cellphone reception and information for first responders in the Blyn area just got an upgrade.

The finishing touches have been completed on the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe’s new telecommunications tower, which is not far from the tribe’s main campus in Blyn.

Now known as Jamestown Tower, the 150-foot structure “allows for more efficient, faster broadband speeds for tribal citizens, businesses, residents, travelers and visitors to the area,” tribal officials said last week.

Spearheaded by the tribe’s Economic Development Authority and Jamestown Network, the tower project is located on tribal property just off Chicken Coop Road. The structure was completed last October.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused some delays, but Verizon Wireless completed equipment installation onto the tower earlier this month.

There are plans to house additional cell phone carriers as well as local internet service providers on the tower in the future, tribal representatives said.

They added that the tower was key as the tribe recently opened the 7 Cedars Resort Hotel.

The Jamestown Tower will boost the safety of East Clallam County residents, tribe officials said, as both Clallam County Fire District 3 and the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office have placed communications equipment on the structure.

In early 2019, the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe qualified for a Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB) grant and a low interest loan to get partial funding for the tower.

The board provides loan/grant packages to help under-served broadband areas obtain the funding necessary to develop their communities.

“It was important to the tribe that the aesthetics of our beautiful Blyn landscape were not impeded by a large metal tower,” tribe representatives said last week. “Designed to blend with the surrounding trees, imitation fir branches were added to the top portion of the towering structure.”

________

Michael Dashiell is the editor of the Sequim Gazette of the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which also is composed of other Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News and Forks Forum. Reach him at editor@sequimgazette.com.

More in News

Fred Lundahl, a pilot from Whidbey Island, prepares to fuel up his 1968 Cessna Aerobat, named Scarlett, at the Jefferson County International Airport in Port Townsend. Lundahl was picking up his plane Wednesday from Tailspin Tommy’s Aircraft Repair facility located at the airport. (Steve Mullensky/for Peninsula Daily News)
Fueling up

Fred Lundahl, a pilot from Whidbey Island, prepares to fuel up his… Continue reading

After hours pet clinic set for Peninsula

Opening June 6 at Sequim location

Five to be honored with community service awards

Ceremony set Thursday at Port Angeles Senior Community Center

PASD planning for expanding needs

Special education, homelessness, new facilities under discussion

Clallam County Sheriff’s Office Animal Control Deputy Ed Bauck
Clallam Sheriff appoints animal control deputy

Position was vacant since end of 2024

Highway 104 road work to start week

Maintenance crews will repair road surfaces on state Highway… Continue reading

Supreme Court says no to recall reconsider

Sequim man found liable for legal fees

Chimacum Ridge seeks board members

Members to write policy, balance values, chair says

Fire destroys shop east of Port Angeles

A fire on Hickory Street east of Port Angeles… Continue reading

Jefferson Transit Authority to expand Kingston Express route

Jefferson Transit Authority has announced expanded service on its… Continue reading

From left to right, Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding students Krystol Pasecznyk and Scott McNair sand a Prothero Sloop with Sean Koomen, the school’s boat building program director. Koomen said the sanding would take one person a few days. He said the plan is to have 12 people sand it together, which will take a few hours. (Elijah Sussman/Peninsula Daily News)
Wooden boatbuilding school building ‘Twin Boats’

Students using traditional and cold-moulding construction techniques