ThisWeek CW 10/16/2014
http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2014/10/13/district-wont-move-forward-with-cell-tower-plan.html
A new Verizon cell phone tower at Asbury Elementary School in the Blacklick Estates neighborhood appears to be off the table unless the company makes an effort to sway residents’ opinions.
District Treasurer Tony Swartz said at the Oct. 8 school board meeting that, after discussions with the Madison Township trustees and the Franklin County Zoning Commission, it was up to either the school district or Verizon Wireless to reach out to community members to decide whether the plan for the tower should be sent for zoning review.
Swartz and Superintendent Bruce Hoover approached township trustees at an Aug. 20 public meeting to gauge interest in having the tower built at the school, 5127 Harbor Blvd.
Response from the trustees was mixed. Victor Paini agreed to hear more from Verizon about the actual need for the tower, but Gary McDonald was very outspoken against the cell tower.
“We haven’t seen all the data about the cell dead spots, or how putting the thing there is necessary, or what the resident feedback is,” Paini said at the Aug. 20 meeting.
Township Administrator Susan Brobst said there would need to be a public forum to provide “the most accurate information out there.”
Unfortunately, Paini said, the decision to put the cell tower on school property is up to the district, Verizon and the zoning commission; the township has no jurisdiction over the matter.
Swartz told school board members that the county zoning commission is unwilling to hold what it would consider to be a special public hearing at the school.
“When I talked to them about a hearing here, they explained that they do not do a public hearing for just one item at a time; they usually will do 16 or 17 or more things, so that’s why they hold them all downtown at their offices at once,” Swartz said. “So if we want a hearing, we’d have to do it ourselves.”
He said he also spoke with the district’s lawyer about the matter and was told it is common for districts to place cell towers on school grounds, but any liability related to the tower would be placed on Verizon Wireless, not the district.
“If we can’t get someone out to speak with the community, because we haven’t had anyone other than Verizon say they want the tower, I would rather table this unless it’s something the board feels strongly about,” Hoover said.
School board members said unless Verizon Wireless takes the lead to reach out to the community and build support for the project, they consider the project over.
“I don’t see Verizon moving forward,” board President Bryan Shoemaker said. “They haven’t done the outreach I thought they said they were going to do after the last time we met with them.
“This is not officially an action item for us, but this seems like it’s a dead issue from the start.”
Board member Nathan Slonaker said he doesn’t agree that the issue is necessarily “dead” but it should only move forward if Verizon Wireless does the work to secure community support.
“We heard from a small group in Blacklick Estates and we heard concerns about what the tower would do to their landscape,” Hoover said. “We were approached to do this as a public service kind of offer (by Verizon Wireless) but if the community wants it, we need some push from the community.”
Were the district to move forward on the project, based on current information about cellular tower lease agreements, Swartz said district officials would likely negotiate for a 20- to 30-year term for between $800 and $3,000 a month in revenue.