Date: Fri 05-Feb-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Borough-antenna-zoning

Full Text:

New Borough Zoning Rule Clears The Way For Emergency Antenna

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

The Borough Zoning Commission has created new zoning regulations to address a

land use formerly not covered in the zoning rules -- emergency services

communications.

The new regulations concern "emergency service communication uses," including

electronic communications equipment intended for the exclusive use of

municipal and state emergency services, including police, public safety and

fire services.

The new regulations provide a mechanism by which the police department can

seek permission from the Borough Zoning Commission to place a radio antenna on

the United Water water storage tank on Reservoir Road atop Mt Pleasant. Such a

radio facility would include a radio shack to house transmitter equipment.

Police Chief James E. Lysaght, Jr, said Tuesday the project to install an

antenna will be expedited. Chief Lysaght said he is glad that regulations are

now in place that will allow the police to seek an antenna placement on the

tank.

Police Captain Owen Carney said a whip-style antenna would be mounted on a

catwalk which circles the top of the water tank. Radio transmitter equipment

would be housed within a small, fenced masonry building to be built near the

tank, he said.

The facility would include a propane-powered generator to supply electricity

to the radio transmitter in the event of a power outage, he said. Police will

patrol the area regularly for security purposes, he said.

The police department currently transmits its two-way radio signals from an

antenna atop Edmond Town Hall. That antenna placement, however, results in

poor or non-existent radio communications in certain areas of town with low

elevations. Replacing those facilities with a new transmitter at a higher

elevation at the water storage tank is proposed to provide more thorough radio

coverage for police.

Long Project

For the past several years, the police have been developing plans to relocate

the police radio antenna to Reservoir Road to improve police communications

coverage.

Placing an antenna there hit one of several stumbling blocks last April when

the Borough Zoning Board of Appeals turned down a requested zoning variance

for the project.

Following that rejection, the Borough Zoning Commission started developing its

proposed regulations on public emergency services radio telecommunications

facilities.

Late last year, as a way to improve police radio coverage as well as enhance

radio coverage for the volunteer ambulance corps and fire departments, First

Selectman Herb Rosenthal proposed locating transmitting antennas on an

outbuilding atop Holcombe Hill off Great Hill Road. Owned by the Newtown

Forest Association, the 86-acre Holcombe Hill, at 830 feet above sea level, is

the highest point in Newtown.

That proposal, however, ran into opposition from the estate of the late

Josephine Holcombe, which threatened to sue the forest association if the

association allowed the town to place radio transmitters and antennas there.

Holcombe Hill is considered the best place in town to install radio antennas

for thorough local emergency radio coverage.

The town viewed the Holcombe Hill site as an attractive location for the radio

gear because transmitting equipment could have been placed in an existing

building. The Reservoir Road site requires construction of a radio shack for a

police antenna placement. Soil characteristics there have posed some practical

problems.