ZBA and Planning for 68 Port Way Cell Tower Feb 19th

1.  Attorney for Verizon showed their photos of the balloon test and how a cell tower would look in each.
2.  Attorney for Verizon admitted there would be weekly testing of both the Verizon 30 kW and AT& T 20kW commercial generators for about 30 minutes each.  There was discussion regarding how loud this would be and how far the noise would transmit.
3.  Verizon still did not have a count on the number of trees greater than 4 1/2″ in diameter in the 75 foot wetlands buffer zone that will need to be cut for this project.  The joint boards requested the trees of this size be marked so another site walk could be done to assess this issue.
4.  The two boards had extensive discussions regarding a desire for a 150 foot tower to help prevent going through this exercise again somewhere else in town.  Verizon is only asking for a 126 foot monopole.  During the discussions Chip Fredette from Verizon said he is not sure how he could justify a 150 foot pole to his company as a pole of that size would be for six or seven providers and the current four provider pole being considered has room for two additional providers down the road.  The two boards took a vote regarding whether or not to require Verizon to build a 150 foot pole.  The vote spread was:  4 votes for the 126 foot pole as submitted by Verizon, 6 votes for a 126 foot pole which could be expanded to 150 feet and 2 votes for a 150 foot pole.
5.  The joint boards agreed that future joint meetings were not necessary.  The respective boards can now work on the matters specific to their board.  Future meetings were set:  Planning Board meeting:  March 10th at 6pm;  Tree site walk:  March 14th 9am;  ZBA meeting:  March 18th 7pm.