Cell phone tower to improve Newfield service

On Jan. 28, the Newfield Planning Board held a public hearing regarding the construction of a cell phone tower, one meant to provide more reliable cell phone service, on West Danby Road.

Tarpon Towers/Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems LLC (doing business as “Verizon Wireless”) first proposed the project Oct. 8. The cell phone tower at Millard Hill was running at capacity, resulting in some cell phone calls not going through, so the West Danby Road tower was proposed to reduce the burden on the Millard Hill tower.

According to Jim Haustein, secretary of Newfield’s Planning Board, the monopole tower will be 155 feet tall, with an antenna that is 4 feet tall, and will take up a quarter of an acre of land. Since the tower is less than 200 feet tall, it will not require lighting or Federal Aviation Administration approval. Haustein said that the tower is significantly taller than the surrounding trees but should not be very prominent.

“You will be able to see the tower from certain locations, but that’s not a real impact,” Haustein said. “It’s a visual impact, possibly, to residents, but there won’t be any sound or odors or anything like that. It pretty much just stands there and works.”

Robert Burgdorf, the attorney who ensured that the projects were properly permitted for Verizon Wireless, said that an increase in cell phone use over time has resulted in more towers being installed and those towers also being shorter than the ones that came before them.

Haustein said the tower’s construction should only take a day or two, but it will take approximately two months to prepare the land around the tower, including building the access road.

He said the exact length of the construction will depend on the weather and might take longer if it starts during the rainy summer months. Haustein said that the construction will have minimal impact on the residents, save for a few trucks using local roads.

Leo Tidd, chair of Newfield’s Planning Board, said he was impressed by how Burgdorf answered his questions about the environmental impact the tower will have, from the removal of trees around the site to the access road impacting runoff.

“It was pretty comprehensive,” Tidd said. “We had some environmental-related questions, where we needed some more information for our site plan review process. They did a very comprehensive job of answering our questions and gathering more information, and that supported us being able to approve the project from the Planning Board side.”

At the public hearing, Burgdorf answered questions from the Board about the supposed risk of 5G wireless systems, which could be added to the tower after its installation without additional zoning approvals being required.

He said that the risk of 5G was limited and that while people have expressed concerns about the perceived health hazards of cell phone towers since the 1990s, cell phone towers have weak signals compared to television or radio stations.

“This issue, like I said, over the decades, every so often, it tends to be the issue du jour, and then it’s dealt with and people understand,” Burgdorf said. “In the early days, we brought a radio frequency expert to explain this is just a radio signal.”

Tim Zarneke, a design engineer for Verizon, said that 5G was a “behind-the-scenes” technology, with the same frequencies and power levels as 4G, and that the only change it made was making the networks faster. He said the signals the tower will emit meet current safety standards and would not cause people harm.

“We follow those to the T,” Zarneke said. “We double-, triple-check in these cases to make sure that everything we do is correct.”

On Feb. 11, the Newfield Town Board will vote on a negative declaration for the project, which will declare that under SEQR regulations, there is no reason that the project cannot go forward.

Haustein said the tower will help provide better service for Newfield and more capacity for cell phone use, especially in areas of the town that only have marginal service. He said this was important for Newfield, where many residents, himself included, do not own landlines and rely on cell phones.

“It’s not going to satisfy all of that, but adjacent areas will have … service when they didn’t have service before, and it’ll just be more reliable,” Haustein said. “It’s mainly a reliability thing and a capacity problem that they’re trying to solve.”

Tidd said based on anecdotal evidence, the number of people who use landline phones in Newfield is declining. As such, he said the tower’s improved cell phone service would be essential for residents who need to use their phones.

“It’s a necessary part of our infrastructure network and went through the appropriate review processes for it,” Tidd said.

Christopher Serico, employee communications and consumer public relations manager for Verizon, said that reliable cell phone coverage is more important than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic when people are relying on phones and internet access more.

“Coverage is always important,” he said. “Especially when more people than ever are working from home and learning from home, connections are more important than ever. I think it’s crucial.”

Haustein said he was grateful to Verizon for investing money in Newfield and was impressed by the work it had done on the project, as well as its ability to answer questions.

“I think the application process went very smoothly,” Haustein said. “I’m glad Verizon is willing to invest the money in infrastructure to improve the cell phone service in Newfield.”

Serico said he was happy when customers were grateful for good wireless service.

“Anywhere where we have customers who appreciate the speed and ease of internet wherever we are, I’m thoroughly appreciative of that,” Serico said. “In my mind, I appreciate that sort of reception, no pun intended.”