Cell tower divides quiet Sherman
SHERMAN — Support outweighed opposition during a recent virtual public information forum on the proposed cell tower for the southern part of town.
New Cingular Wireless PCS LLC — also known as AT&T — and wireless infrastructure solutions company Homeland Towers LLC are looking to build a wireless telecommunications tower facility with a nearly 200-foot cell tower at 16 Coote Hill Road.
The proposed facility would feature a 170-foot steel monopole tower with six antennas — one of which would be for municipal radio communications — in order to provide wireless communication services to southern Sherman, where such coverage is currently lacking.
According to Homeland and AT&T, their proposed tower would not only provide reliable 4G LTE service to Routes 37 and 39, surrounding secondary roads, residences and other properties in
southern Sherman, but address gaps in public safety emergency communications coverage in the area as well.
A few residents raised aesthetic, health and other concerns about the tower during the recent forum, but a majority said they support it for reasons ranging from safety to convenience and quality of life.
Sherman’s volunteer fire chief, Chris Fuchs, said a cell tower is “critically needed” for both residents and first responders.
Inadequate wireless coverage in southern Sherman not only impacts people’s ability to call for help in the area, he said — it also creates difficulties for firefighters and other personnel responding to emergencies.
Fuchs said all Sherman’s fire apparatus have iPads that rely on AT&T’s FirstNet service, which first responders use every time there’s a 911 call.
“It pulls up a map and shows us exactly how to get to (the location) we’re responding to and any hazards we might encounter along the way,” he said.
The software also has access to the town assessor’s office, which provides pictures and layouts of properties, enabling first responders to be more prepared before arriving at the scene of an emergency.
“Of course, none of the software works without cellular coverage,” Fuchs said. “All of this is heavily reliant on cell service. If we don’t have it, we can’t use it.”
Mauweehoo Hill resident Sharon Danosky said she “very much supports the cell tower” because lack of coverage in southern Sherman is “a safety and quality of life issue.”
“The bandwidth isn’t supporting the business we need to do for those of us who have home businesses or are forced to work from home,” said Danosky, who runs her own business and currently works from home due to COVID-19. “Our calls are constantly dropped.”
Danosky acknowledged some people’s concerns about the tower’s aesthetic impact, but said it’s more important that residents have access to cell service.
“If there’s a major storm and we lose power, we don’t have any way of connecting with the rest of the world,” she said. “As a matter of fact, in certain storms, I’ve had to leave my house, drive down to the center of town in order to call and report an outage.”
Concerns
While he supports effective communication in the event of an emergency and appreciates and values “the necessity of reliable wireless communication, Coote Hill Road resident Peter Kuring said he’s wary about the proposed wireless telecommunications facility.
Kuring said he and his neighbors are responsible for sharing the cost of maintaining Coote Hill Road and he’s concerned about the impact the facility might have on the narrow, single-lane residential roadway in terms of wearand-tear and traffic volume.
AT&T’s attorney Chris Fischer said usage of the cell tower site would be “very infrequent,” with “maybe a technician and a maintenance van going up to the site once a month.”
Homeland Towers regional manager Ray Vergati said steps would be taken to make sure the structural integrity of the road is not compromised during the construction process, and that Homeland Towers and AT&T would make a financial contribution toward further maintenance of the road.
Vergati said the financial contribution was agreed upon by Pepper Jones — owner of the road, as well as the 16 Coote Hill Road property — in a letter. Vergati did not disclose the amount of the contribution, but said it was established in the letter and would be made as a one-time payment once the project is approved and constructed.
Peace Pipe Lane resident Joal Wallack said he has health-related concerns about the proposed tower.
“As a physician on staff at Mount Sinai in New York, I am well aware of the literature and research that’s been done on radio frequency from cell towers,” he said. Wallack said there needs to be better communication in the area — “especially for our first responders” — but he doesn’t believe a cell tower should be placed in such close proximity to where people live.
“I think we need to be cognizant of the fact that this may pose a health risk to people who live near the tower,” he said. “It’s unconscionable to expose people with a tower close to their homes. I think every other viable site needs to be explored.”
Coburn Road East resident Roderika Pohl said she is “very upset” about the proposed tower because it would be visible from her home.
“I’m horrified at the thought of looking out my window and it would be right there,” she said.
Although the tower would be in a “heavily wooded area,” according to a technical report from AT&T and Homeland, it would likely be visible year-round to some within a half-mile radius.
Fischer said AT&T and Homeland plans to conduct a balloon study to analyze the proposed tower’s visibility when leaves are off trees.
Sunny Lane resident David Febbraio said he understands concerns people have about the tower’s impact on scenery, but asks those opposed to the tower for aesthetic reasons to “please reconsider.”
“As someone who has lived here full-time for a couple of decades now and also runs a business out of this town, it is very difficult to have a large blackhole of communication in that area,” he said.
Next steps
The fate of the proposed tower does not lie in the hands of the town, but the state Siting Council, which has exclusive jurisdiction over the construction of cell towers in Connecticut.
The next step in the process involves Sherman’s Planning and Zoning Commission making recommendations to Homeland “in terms of things that, within our regulations, have to be adhered to,” according to First Selectman Don Lowe.
Fischer said Homeland and AT&T will take the town’s feedback into account before formally filing an application with the Sighting Council.