Tlingit & Haida’s Tidal Network is embarking on a seven-city tour of Southeast communities this month to update people on the organization’s plans for wireless internet service in the region and listen to community concerns.

The Wrangell session is planned for 5 to 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 15, at the Nolan Center (a change from the initial schedule of 6 to 8 p.m.).

The session also will be on Zoom: www.tinyurl.com/tidalwrangelllistening.

Tidal Network has encountered differing levels of opposition to its plans to put up telecommunications towers in Wrangell, Sitka, Petersburg and Haines.

“We’re going to see what people say … and then respond to their questions,” Chris Cropley, Tidal Network director, said last week.

The Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska leadership “wants to take a step back and listen,” Cropley said. Council President Richard Peterson plans to attend all seven of the community meetings.

In addition to Wrangell, listening sessions are planned for Sitka, Klawock, Craig, Kasaan, Hydaburg and Petersburg. A meeting will be scheduled in Haines after the holidays, Cropley said.

Tidal Network also is conducting a community feedback survey, available online at https://tinyurl.com/TidalNetworkFeedback.

“We have active plans at work in all of the communities,” Cropley said of Tidal Network’s efforts to provide wireless internet services across Southeast, which include putting up towers to fill gaps in service areas.

“Join us to ask questions, offer feedback and help shape the future of broadband and digital equity across our region,” according to the announcement of the seven meetings.

Dinner and door prizes will be offered at all of the community meetings.

Tlingit and Haida in 2022 was awarded a $50 million federal grant to build towers and install equipment to provide wireless internet service for unserved and underserved areas across Southeast Alaska. It built a tower at 3-Mile Zimovia Highway in Wrangell this summer — its first in Southeast — and proposed one near 13-Mile but was rejected by the planning and zoning commission on a 3-to-1 vote Nov. 4.

Tidal Network decided not to appeal the commission decision to the borough assembly.

In its denial letter, the commission said the 230-foot-tall tower would be “incompatible with the character” of the neighborhood; the “high visibility from adjoining properties” had not been adequately addressed; and that lights on the tower “would result in adverse impacts on neighboring properties.”

Most of the public testimony at the Nov. 4 commission meeting was in opposition to the tower.

Tidal Network is building a 150-foot-tall tower on Mill Road in Petersburg. Although the organization already has its building permit, several residents spoke out against the tower at the Nov. 17 borough assembly meeting.

The tower is going up on land owned by Tlingit & Haida. The Petersburg borough’s community development director told radio station KFSK that the lot is zoned for industrial use, which allows communication towers. There is no public hearing requirement for building permits.

Tidal Network is in the process of buying a borough-owned lot on Haugen Drive in Petersburg for a second tower in the community.

Plans to build a tower in Sitka have encountered community opposition, resulting in a planning commission decision to reject the permit application.