PINEDALE – An entrepreneur who is way out in front of the town of Pinedale’s effort to plan for an orderly expansion of high-speed Internet may get his wish to build an 80-foot tower to serve more wireless customers in Pinedale – at least temporarily.

Lance Laughter of LR Communications Inc. wants to place the tower at a site just behind the Chinese Gourmet Family Restaurant in Pinedale at 99 W. Mill Street. The site is in a zone where the maximum height for a tower, without the variance, would be 35 feet.

But his request comes even as the town council is awaiting a “propagation study” that will specify the best areas in town in which to place towers for broadcasting signals. The town council approved that study a cost of no more than $5,000 at its Sept. 11 meeting, the idea being that the town could build a few towers in the best locations and compel competing wireless providers to co-locate on those towers rather than each company building its own tower. That would help preserve the aesthetics of Pinedale’s skyline.

The problem is, LR Communications Inc. won’t build this year if it can’t get a foundation poured by November, Laughter told members of the town Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday – and that leaves fewer customers with LR’s high-speed wireless Internet service in a town where residents crave better broadband services.

That situation had Barbara Lozier, president of the Sublette County Chamber of Commerce, speaking up in LR Communications’ favor at Wednesday’s meeting, suggesting that competition by other high-speed Internet providers will be great if it develops, but meanwhile, a business is already trying to deliver more service in Pinedale.

“Nobody loves pie-in-the-sky more than I do, but we’ve got the here-and-now business that wants to grow,” Lozier said, adding that people love the service.

The solution? Mayor Bob Jones proposed that the planning and zoning board consider a temporary variance to allow Laughter to build at once, but requiring him to take the tower down and place his broadcasting hardware on one of the city towers after that new tower is built. After some negotiating, the planning board approved a resolution recommending approval of the temporary variance and allowing LR Communications one year from the time the appropriate town tower is up and operating in order to switch its customers over to its new antenna location.

The planning and zoning board’s recommendation now goes to the Pinedale Town Council, which makes the final decision, possibly as soon as its meeting Monday. Laughter said he will be in town for the council meeting.

Meanwhile, the town council is also getting ready to take its first look at a tower ordinance drafted by Mayor Ed Wood at the request of the council at its Sept. 11 meeting. Wood said the ordinance will cover general issues such as what zoning areas towers may be located in or may not be located in and what safety requirements would be to protect people and property in the area around them.