The Cross Border Coalition to Stop the Radio Towers is holding another outdoor benefit concert, picnic and car show this month to raise money for its ongoing legal fight, Set for Sunday, Aug. 23 at Seabright Farm in Point Roberts, the event will feature live music, a silent auction, games, prizes and more. It will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. and admission is by donation.
It's the second benefit concert held by the group that has been fighting a plan by BBC Broadcasting Inc. to erect five 45-metre (150-foot) steel towers at an undeveloped lot on McKenzie Way in Point Roberts, about 330 metres from the Tsawwassen border.
The towers would transmit South Asian radio station KRPI, AM 1550, which broadcasts from studios in Richmond to a Lower Mainland audience. Also known as Sher-EPunjab AM 1550, the station currently broadcasts using antenna in Ferndale,
Wash., but wants to relocate them for a stronger signal.
Arguing it's the wrong location to build such infrastructure, residents on both sides of the border have a number of concerns, including health impacts and the electrical interference that would result from the project.
BBC Broadcasting Inc. will be in Skagit County
Superior Court later this year to appeal a decision by Whatcom County council, which upheld an earlier ruling by the county's hearing examiner to reject the application based on a failure to meet height requirements.
The Federal Communications Commission has granted a construction permit but a zoning permit is required from Whatcom County.
Just days before a county public hearing was scheduled to begin last fall, the hearing examiner announced he had denied the application. It was a pleasant surprise for opponents who had been fighting on several fronts. A spokesperson for the coalition said a court date hasn't been set and that the broadcaster's lawyer just submitted a rebuttal to the group's response.
For more about the legal fight and the benefit concert, visit notowers.webs.com.
