T-Mobile's efforts to locate a cell phone tower away from a school in Glenville has led to accusations of a double standard by a Representative Town Meeting member from North Mianus.
T-Mobile considered but rejected installing antennas for cellular telephone transmissions on Glenville School, because it is a K-5 school and is undergoing construction, according to an application the company submitted to the Planning and Zoning Commission last month.
The company identified the 33 Riversville Road school and an office building at 235 Glenville Road as the best structures to install antennas to improve coverage in the Glenville and western Greenwich areas. It selected the 235 Glenville Road site.
Yet the company wants to install an antenna in a proposed 80-foot flagpole at 328 Palmer Hill Road, next to North Mianus School, and that troubled District 12/Havemeyer member Bennie Benvenuto.
"I think it's hypocritical of them," Benvenuto, 77, said about T-Mobile's plans. "They (cell towers and antennas) shouldn't be near schools at all, they should be in a remote location, if possible."
A controversy has erupted among Benvenuto's North Mianus neighbors and parents of children who attend North Mianus School to T-Mobile's proposal for the cellular tower on Palmer Hill Road. The proposed cellular tower would be on the property of town businessman Fred Durante Jr.
The company signed a contract with Durante two years ago that pays him rent of $3,000 per month.
About 150 residents crowded the Town Hall Meeting Room June 9 to protest the plan at a zoning commission meeting. Even though the commission has no authority over cell towers -- that belongs to the Connecticut Siting Council -- it can hold public hearings and pass along its recommendations to the New Britain-based state agency.
The residents were concerned the cellular emissions could pose health dangers to residents and to schoolchildren. The company maintains it is well within the guidelines established by the Federal Communications Commission. Durante's property is adjacent to the property of the North Mianus School. The Glenville School is about a third of a mile away from an office building at 235 Glenville Road.
The matter will be discussed again tonight at 7 at the zoning commission's meeting at the Town Hall Meeting Room.
The separate Glenville Road submission, which is for rooftop antennas hidden by faux chimneys and not a cell tower, is scheduled to be heard by the zoning commission July 7. The zoning commission has authority over that application because it falls under rooftop installations.
A T-Mobile representative couldn't be reached for comment Monday or Friday.
Rep. Fred Camillo, R-151st, who represents the area and lives less than one mile from the proposed North Mianus cell tower, said T-Mobile's Glenville plan could assist North Mianus residents in their campaign.
"It sends a mixed signal. It certainly would almost support or buttress our argument about erring on the side of caution," he said.
Monday morning, Camillo, along with Rep. L. Scott Frantz, R-36, were in First Selectman Peter Tesei's office trying to hammer out a date with T-Mobile. They want the company to find another site for the cell tower.
"I think they are very sincere in their desire to talk with us," Tesei said, although no date has been set for the meeting.
Tesei said he's discussed the issue with Durante and sympathized with the general contractor.
"He wishes that this situation be resolved. He has been subjected to an enormous amount of communications, some if it civil and some of it uncivil," Tesei said. "There is nothing to be gained by people becoming inflammatory. Let's just respect each other."
A telephone message and an e-mail were left with Durante seeking comment Monday.
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T-Mobile accused of double standard in cell phone antenna sites
Source: Greenwich Time
Date: 06/24/2009
