“You will see that many tourists will come here soon to have a look,” says one of the toiling men on Monday afternoon at the Bosweg in Hoogersmilde. With joint efforts, a group of fellow villagers assemble a miniature television tower.
A resident of Hoogersmilde bought the miniature version in Appelscha a few years ago. “It has been there in the miniature park, but that is closed. The buyer wanted to place the tower at home, but it never came to that,” says chairman Mindert van der Velde of Dorpsbelangen Hoogersmilde.
“We wanted to keep him for Hoogersmilde and place him in the village. The TV tower is a kind of beacon here. When we come back from vacation and see the high tower in the distance, we are back home,” he continues. “We were able to take over this miniature version and Bram completely refurbished it. It’s so damn handy.”
“I like to tinker”, responds Bram Koenrades. Is he proud of the end result? “Well, that’s not really my concern. I just loved working on it. I worked on it for a few days and I live near the real tower, so I had the example close by,” says the retired roofer.
Cords as cables
In the meantime, together with Van der Velde and six other volunteers, under the watchful eye of Koenrades’ grandson Rick, he attaches the mast, made of PVC pipe, to the lower part of the tower. They also attach cords to the sides. “The large one is also held in place with cables, these are miniature cables,” laughs Van der Velde.
The 9.5 meter long colossus is still flat on Monday around noon. In the evening it is put upright with the help of a telescopic handler. The upper part was originally made of aluminum, but Koenrades replaced it with PVC. “I also renewed the landings. Look, these are plastic plates,” he points. “I made it to prevent the wood underneath from rotting.”
Red light
The location on the Bosweg was not chosen by chance. “This is the road to the campsites in the village, so a lot of people pass by. And in this way, the small tower is exactly in line with the large tower,” Van der Velde points to the more than 300-metre-high specimen a stone’s throw away. “There will also be a flashing red light, just like the real one.” “Yes, this too must be clearly visible to low-flying fighter jets,” jokes someone else.
“What I do regret is that the permit application from the municipality cost us more than 700 euros in fees, while we do a lot with volunteers here in the village,” says the chairman of Dorpsbelangen. “I asked if the municipality could contribute in some way, but that was not possible. Shame.”