Public Safety Building Committee Hears Cell Tower Concerns



At the first Public Safety Building Committee meeting since voters approved a $6.5 million bond proposal for a new public safety building, committee members laid the foundation for the work that is to come.

And that foundation was tested, right off the bat.

Speaking in the public comment section that opened the meeting, Montville resident Joe Ciaudelli, an electrical engineer, brought up concerns he has about the height of the cell tower planned for the site.

The proposal has the cell tower at 180 feet tall; Ciaudelli asked that the group consider a 120 foot-tall tower.

His concerns focused on the visibility of the taller tower and the effect of that visibility on real estate values. He also said that cell technology is changing and that could affect the needed height of the tower, as well.

The space shuttle could fit in the space of the tower as currently designed, Ciaudelli said. A lower cell tower, disguised, would not harm the real estate values as severely, he said.

"Regardless of height, the tower will have a negative effect on real estate values," Ciaudelli said. "The question is only how much."

In addition, Ciaudelli questioned the prospect of the town earning revenue from the cell tower. He said that all the major carriers have coverage in Montville, and that in the short term, there is no demand.

Ciaudelli said that cell technology is changing. A new FCC ruling, he said, will allow cell phone companies to use television waves. The technology, he said, is called TVBD, or television band devices.

The TVBD waves, Ciaudelli said, travel around objects, and TVBD antenna heights are limited to 100 feet above the ground.

Committee members listened and, at the end of the meeting, thanked Ciaudelli for his questions and information, and promised to look into the issues he raised.

The rest of the meeting focused on the work to come. Marcia Vlaun, director of Planning & Zoning, carefully outlined administrative processes that are vital to the project, including when and how bills will be paid, before and after the bonds are sold.

The project has a  specific cash flow profile before the bonds are sold, Vlaun said. "We have to stick with the cash flow we've given the town. Out of fairness to the town, we can't put them in any kind of a money hole."

She also stressed the importance of documenting every meeting, every proposal, every agreement.  

"I don't want to get in a situation," she said, "where if we had a department called XYZ, and XYZ said verbally 'We'd like to have this in the building,' and then we are two weeks from finalizing the building, and XYZ said 'Oh, that's not what we wanted.'"

Documentation is vital to this process, Vlaun said. "When these meetings occur, they should always be with more than one person, and some kind of document should come out," summarizing what was said.

David King, vice president of Kaestle Boos, the architectural firm working on the project, went over the costs involved, and discussed his company's timetable. The total that the firm is scheduled to earn is 8.6 percent of the total, or $558,765.

The bidding climate is changing, he said. He has seen increases in materials cost, and a couple large projects in the area are going out to bid.

King said Kaestle Boos five months for the design work, and he urged the committee not to tarry.

The plan is for the public service building work to go out for bids in May. Beforehand, Montville Police Lt. Leonard Bunnell and other committee members

will visit some similar new facilities and "hit the ground running," with ideas and lessons learned from the other departments.

Committee Chairman Jack Platt told King, "We're definitely not going to sit on it. But haste makes waste."