SPANISH FORT, Ala. — A lengthy dispute over placement of a cell phone tower on the Causeway to improve service for Spanish Fort residents was resurrected Monday night, one full month after the City Council granted approval for the property housing WLVV-AM 1410 to host the structure.

“We purchased the property, and at this point our final plans have not been decided, but the one thing we have committed to doing is pursuing the cell tower construction,” said Judy Adams, a director with DeLand, Fla.-based Buddy Tucker Association Inc.

The nonprofit association bills itself as a “ministry of gospel broadcasting and Christian radio” and purchased the site in the weeks following the council’s Sept. 8 approval for creation of a singular telecommunications district on the site. Mobile-based Archangel Radio had been in negotiations to purchase the property,

but the deal failed to materialize.

The council’s decision ended a two-year debate over placement for the tower that had been whittled down to the WLVV site and a nearby site behind R&R Seafood, near the former Ramada Inn. Developer Lester Boihem, owner of Two-Way Communications Co. in Orange Beach, had been working with Archangel on plans to construct a 150-foot tower with the capacity to handle as many as five wireless carriers but said he was contacted personally three weeks ago by Theodore D. “Buddy” Tucker regarding those plans.

The two have since reached an “impasse,” Boihem said regarding the site’s development, and Tucker intends to pursue the project independently.

“I’ve worked really hard on this T-1 (telecommunications district), spent well over $100,000, and 10 months of my life and your lives for all of this to be at risk on this site right now,” Boihem told members of the council during Monday’s work session.

Boihem is hopeful the council will consider an alternative plan that would allow him and Jacob Cunningham, one of the property owners at the former competitor’s site, to join forces and proceed with construction of a tower on the previously denied Ramada location citing the “need” referenced in the wording of the T-1 zoning classification.

At issue, Boihem contends, is the cooperation of the wireless carriers, without whom service cannot exist.

“If I can get it up and running by the end of the first quarter, I can keep the four carriers who have already committed to me. If not, they’ll put in their own short-range (network) that captures the I-10 corridor. That’s great for them because it captures 80 percent of their customers, but it cuts the city out entirely,” Boihem said. “The tower’s in my yard. I’ve paid for it already…I’m just hoping I can resurrect this and salvage it for everybody.”

The city, however, is seeking outside legal counsel before taking any action on the issue.

City Attorney David Conner has a conflict of interest related to the project, so attorney Shawn Alves handled all of the legal questions leading to the Sept. 8 decision. Alves was unable to attend Monday’s work session.

Mayor Joe Bonner said it would not be prudent to discuss the matter until Alves is available to review the matter, but he did clarify one point.

“Under no circumstances do I want to go into this with the feeling floating around out there that we could wind up with two (cell towers),” said Bonner, noting he has seen nothing in the way of a plan to date for the property since the change in ownership.

Adams said the Buddy Tucker Association has already contacted the Planning Commission and is eager to begin the process of moving the project forward.

“We met with (Building Official) Bruce Renkert on Oct. 12 after we purchased the property and went over everything and assured him of our absolute commitment to construction of a cell tower,” she said.

In fact, the association has “all of the funding together” to proceed and has met with various cell tower developers and carriers in the past three weeks, Adams said.

She said a timeframe does not exist for proposed completion because the association knows it will have to seek and receive Planning Commission approval for the new site plan.

“We’re trying to do it as quick as we can, and I don’t know how quick that will be because we’re unable to use the previous plans and then have to go through the planning and zoning process,” Adams said.

At press time the item was  not currently on the agenda for Monday’s regular Planning Commission meeting, and Renkert was out of town and not immediately available for comment.

In other business the council:

The next regular meeting of the council will begin with a 5 p.m. work session in the conference room at City Hall on Nov. 16, followed immediately by the regular meeting at 6 p.m. at the Gathering Place in the Prodisee Center.