With construction permits in hand, company needs weather’s cooperation

By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

(Oct. 1, 2026) A cell phone tower will begin to rise in Ocean Pines next month as consumers, local law enforcement and homeowners association officials look forward to some relief from the unreliable mobile phone service that has plagued the community for decades.

Ocean Pines Association staff said at a board meeting Saturday that Virginia-based contractor Milestone Towers expects to complete the community’s cell phone tower by mid-November, provided no site complexities are discovered.

According to OPA Senior Director of Administration Linda Martin, Milestone Towers, a Reston, Virginia, telecommunications company, has received its final construction permits

Official shovel-in-the-ground-work was scheduled to begin earlier this month, but the heavy winds and flooding brought by last week’s nor’easter delayed the project.

Even so, Martin said Ocean Pines should have a cell tower by December.

The roughly 150-foot tall structure will be designed to look like a tree to preserve the forested neighborhood’s natural aesthetic, OPA General Manager John Viola said, acknowledging that some homeowners are concerned about its appearance.

“It’s going to look like a tree,” he said. “It’s going to have all the branches … that seems to be most of the questions that I get.”

The tower will be constructed behind the maintenance facility at the Ocean Pines Golf Course. This site was selected due to its central location.

Milestone will put up the tower at its cost and pay a one-time fee to Ocean Pines of about $20,000. Cell phone carriers will pay rent to use the tower, with 40% of the proceeds going to Ocean Pines. Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile plan to come on board, which could generate about $35,000 annually for the association.

This effort to erect a cell phone tower in Ocean Pines began two years ago. Former Ocean Pines Police Chief Tim Robinson spearheaded the initiative because of the unreliable mobile phone reception in the community. This issue is particularly bothersome during holidays and busy summer weekends, which Robinson said can pose a safety issue if residents have trouble reaching 911.

In 2025, representatives from Milestone Towers and Verizon spoke to residents about the project and how it would work.

Last September, Verizon Director of State and Local Engagement Paul Plymouth said despite concerns that the cell phone tower would increase connectivity for only a few Ocean Pines homes, most should see some improvement.

Homeowners in a one-mile radius of the golf maintenance facility will be in the tower’s direct path and will likely experience the most relief. However, the tower will take pressure and congestion off other nearby towers, which should alleviate weak signals for the remainder of the community.

The current push to build a cell phone tower in Ocean Pines is not the first. In December 2018, after months of work and negotiations, the Worcester County Commissioners rejected a lease agreement for a proposed tower at the Ocean Pines Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The commissioners argued that the company building the structure, Calvert Crossroads, did not provide enough space on the 160-foot-tall tower for county use.

Ocean Pines’ representatives on the board of commissioners, Chip Bertino and Jim Bunting, also cited residents’ objection to the sight of the tower in the community.