If you haven't noticed the ever-increasing number of telecommunications towers sprouting across the Ohio landscape, you have probably been living on the moon.
Towers now overshadow parkland, crop up behind historic farm buildings and dwarf rural villages.
And while few will argue wireless communication has not changed American society in some positive ways, like all advances in technology, there is a down side. In the case of wireless telephones it is the alarming specter of countless industrial towers looming over scenic and historic areas that has preservationists and private citizens in general alarmed. On the other hand, siting a tower on one's land can be very profitable, so much so that a few Ohio farmers are now erecting towers purely on a speculative basis in hopes of cashing in on lucrative transmitter site leasing agreements. In some communities the location of towers has become so controversial that an increasing number are fighting back. They simply want to accommodate the new technology in more visually acceptable ways.