Why does the commission and the planning and zoning board avoid technical issues such as water/sewer pipeline projects or deciding which equipment is purchased by our police and public safety departments, while at the same time seeking to micro-manage far more technically complex issues such as community-wide telecommunication?
At a recent commission meeting Ms. Simpson, the planning and zoning department director, told the commissioners that the town's public safety managers might want to locate 800 megahertz antennas on cell towers to improve the current spotty public safety band radio reception on the island. Spotty 800 MHz reception is common in all sorts of communities from large cities to rural areas. Many of these municipalities employ vehicle mounted booster radios with high-gain antennas to insure adequate radio reception inside buildings and outlying areas. Having a vehicle mounted signal booster provides a strong signal wherever police and fire staff are located. Having the radio signal in close proximity to the hand-held radios is a superior solution to a distant cell tower, where the signal may be attenuated by intervening buildings and trees. There are many companies that supply the public safety sector with 800 MHz vehicle mounted booster packs. I assume that our fire and safety personnel already use vehicle mounted booster packs. I assume the booster packs work well. I hope the town has not been waiting years for the possibility of using a cell tower when good safety communications has always been available.
Why are we looking at cell tower solutions that have a profound negative impact on property values when there may be far less invasive solutions? Is the commission sufficiently informed to make optimal decisions in highly technical engineering fields?
Too often the previous town manager used his golden Rolodex of no-bid contract vendors to inform the commission about various topics. For the past 20 years I have cautioned the town about limiting itself to the proposals from a single company that also stands to make a lot of money if their advice is accepted. I congratulate the current commission for breaking a decades-old dysfunction by demanding that town staff do a more thorough job of supplying the commission with accurate and complete information. However, if the messengers are themselves uninformed then the process cannot succeed. Such is the history of cell towers on Longboat. To date, the entire cell phone process has been a monologue conducted by a cell tower salesman who represents himself as an expert. For some reason the previous town manager and Ms. Simpson have doggedly insisted that the cell tower salesperson's pitch was all that the commission needed to know.
I have no idea how a cell tower salesman managed to convince Ms. Simpson and the former town manager that they need look no further than the top of a 150 foot tower to solve all our communications needs. Unfortunately, this is a very limited solution for a much greater challenge that confronts our community as we begin to enter the baby-boomer era of fast evolving wireless telecommunications technologies.
During the past four or more years that the cell tower company has pitched their rather imposing structure at one place or another on Longboat, there has never been a discussion about the adverse impact on local property values. Finally, two prominent real estate people have come forward and affirmed that cell towers in upscale communities seriously impact surrounding property values. Today the Observer printed their comments. I am sure more real estate people will join the chorus when they realize that a cell tower will scare people away from our community. People who can afford to purchase property anywhere they choose, do not choose communities with ugly and unsafe cell towers in their midst.
Longboat Key deserves a well designed modern communications infrastructure. Unfortunately the town staff in charge of advising the planning and zoning board and the commission appear to be too cozy with the cell tower salespeople. I am uncomfortable seeing Steve Shields, planning and zoning staff member in charge of the current cell tower application at the Island Chapel, with his arm over the shoulder of Mr. Eatrides, cell tower applicant, at Harry's Cafe, beaming from ear to ear. I am uncomfortable with Ms. Simpson repeatedly sitting with the cell tower salespeople at advertised commission and planning and zoning meetings. I dislike the appearance of bias and a good-old-boy relationship between public servants and salespeople looking for favors. I am not alone in having strong objections to either Ms. Simpson or Mr. Shields having anything to do with cell tower applications or town communications policy. I do not feel that either employee has the requisite credentials or technical background to be in charge of such a complex and important element in our community's future.
We need to do better now that we have turned a new leaf so to speak.
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