With hopes of avoiding a legal challenge by residents who disagree about where the Town’s proposed cell tower should be located and whether it’s even needed, Indian River Shores has hired a consultant to fully vet all the possibilities.
Residents in John’s Island and The Estuary would prefer a cell tower on Town Hall property, while most Bermuda Bay residents want the tower located at Bee Gum Point at the end of Fred Tuerk Drive.
Town Manager Robbie Stabe last week said, “I have hired Cityscape Consulting and they are off and running. We sent them everything we have on the cell tower issue and they said that they hope to complete the study in less than the two to three weeks they estimated.”
Stabe said Cityscape offered a $7,250 all-inclusive price to come up with a solution. Cityscape was chosen via a competitive bidding process in which two companies applied, but the other firm out of Washington State quoted an hourly fee with a base price plus pricey add-ons.
Cityscape was also the firm cited by the 20 or so Shores clients who have retained beachside attorney Michael O’Haire to represent their interests in the cell tower matter, should some legal action be necessary. It’s also the consultant Indian River County uses when tackling similar projects.
In March, Stabe said, he plans to coordinate at least one workshop to be facilitated by Cityscape. In the meantime, Stabe and Datapath Towers are providing all the research they have to this point – including photographs and feedback from a test of the aesthetic effects of erecting a 135-foot monopole tower on the two sites in the Town seen as the most desirable to the major cell phone carriers.
Datapath is the company that has been hired to erect the tower.
In a memo to residents last week, Stabe said the Town could build a smaller stealth tower, or even multiple towers that were lower, at 80 or so feet, but that a tower or towers that fail to meet the big carriers’ specifications will not attract companies like AT&T and Verizon, which serve many town residents.
“The saying, ‘If you build it they will come,’ is not at all true for cell towers. The carriers know what will work and what won’t work,” Stabe said. “Their preferred tower is a monopole with external arrays. Why? Because this configuration gives the carriers the greatest ability to provide the maximum signal using the maximum amount and variety of antenna arrays.”
Less obtrusive and more decorative options would also jack up the price tag, Stabe said. A bell tower or lighthouse-type tower could cost upwards of $1 million to build, and a clock-tower design would likely cost much more. Other non-cell-tower systems that would place numerous nodes on utility poles and other infrastructure would be even pricier, Stabe said.
“Virtually everyone agrees we need better service,” Stabe wrote. “The Town’s number one priority is the personal safety of our residents and visitors. It is the Town’s responsibility to ensure all of its residents and visitors the capability to call 911 in any emergency, and that adequate connectivity is also readily available for our residents’ security needs.”
Town Clerk Laura Aldrich sent out an update to residents Friday on the cell tower progress, pointing out that the many obstacles have provided Stabe with quite an education in cellular technology and tower design and construction. “His knowledge has expanded to the extent that the experts are now offering him a job,” Aldrich said.
