Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Cell tower firm plans to submit impact study

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 14:21:41 -0400

Cell tower firm plans to submit impact study

PAUL POST , The Saratogian
08/30/2003

GREENFIELD - A firm that plans to build a cell tower off South Greenfield Road is
expected to submit its environmental study to the town Planning Board on Sept. 9,
officials said Friday.

Tower Ventures Inc. of Pittsfield, Mass., had been waiting for a response from the
state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation about the tower's
impact on historic Greenfield sites.

State officials have told a TVI consultant that it plans to issue a "letter of no
effect," which means the state doesn't believe a tower will present negative
impacts.

"I haven't seen it (the letter)," TVI spokesman Chris Ciolfi said. "We expect to
have it next week."
Ciolfi said he expects to submit a draft final environmental impact statement to
the Planning Board on Sept. 9.

The board must then review

TVI's study and decide whether it has adequately addressed all issues raised by
the public. Many residents have voiced opposition to a tower. Their primary
contention is that its visibility will devalue their homes and property.
Plans call for building a 185-foot-tall tower on property owned by the Duane
Cornell family.

Residents have asked the company to find a more remote location, but Ciolfi has
said no place else in Greenfield adequately provides cell phone coverage for the
Route 9N corridor. The tower is designed to fill a gap in cell phone coverage
between Saratoga Springs and Corinth.

Firms such as Nextel have already indicated they'd like to put antennae on the
tower.

Town Planning Board Chairman Gary Dake said other issues, in addition to visual
impact, must also be reviewed. For example, the Federal Telecommunications Act
prohibits the town from considering a cell tower's potential health effects when
rendering a decision. But Dake said he expects TVI's report to at least mention
the topic and reply to concerns raised by residents.

The board is expected to decide at its Tuesday, Sept. 30, meeting whether TVI's
study has addressed all issues adequately. If it accepts the study, the board
could render a final decision about the tower on Tuesday, Oct. 14, or Tuesday,
Oct. 28.
"Once they have the environmental impact study done, they're 99 percent of the way
through the process," Dake said. "If we don't accept it (on Sept. 30), we just
keep moving the calendar back."

He said it's possible that a final decision won't be made until November.
Ciolfi has said tower construction will take four to eight weeks, meaning the
structure could still be up by year's end.

http://www.saratogian.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10089222&BRD=1169&PAG=461&dept_id=17708&rfi=6

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