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Date: 12/11/2019
WEST SPRINGFIELD – On Dec. 2, the West Springfield Town Council revisited a request from AT&T CRAN to install a mini–cellular antenna on a pole on Union Street.
The topic was continued from the Nov. 18 meeting due to concerns voiced by Councilor Michael Eger regarding the safety of the equipment’s potential 5G usage.
“My primary concern is this antenna is 35 feet from a bedroom window,” said Eger. He said he would be uncomfortable with an antenna that close to his home. Michael Dolan, an attorney from Brown Rudnick, who had made the initial request on behalf of AT&T, presented Don Haes, whom he described as a “radiation expert.”
Councilor Daniel O’Brien asked Haes for his credentials, for the record. Haes said that he had 40 years of experience in the field of radiation safety, a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in radiological sciences, 32 years as a voting member of the International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety and is the vice-chair of the committee that sets the exposure limits for radiation safety.
“When we’re talking about who wrote the book on radio frequency safety, without bragging, it’s me, sir,” Haes told O’Brien.
Haes told the council that the FCC provides guidance on radiation exposure to workers and the public from telecommunication equipment. In addition, he said, Massachusetts is one of the few states that has its own radio frequency exposure limits.
“I performed a series of calculations,” Haes said and noted that when performing his calculations he airs on the side of caution so his results are “typically higher by a factor of four” than they are in actuality.
“Once you’re 25 feet away or further [the radiation exposure] falls to less than 1 percent of the allowable,” limit, Haes said.
“Just to put things in perspective, I think most people, that I know anyway, have a wireless device that they use,” Haes said holding up a cell phone. “The limit for the wireless devices themselves – are 20 times higher than the limits we’re talking about here. If you’re concerned about your exposure to energy from wireless communications, the device is your number one source. It’s not the tower,” he said.
Haes also said if AT&T eventually wants to make the antenna capable of 5G they will have to come back before the council. The antenna that the company wants to install is considered, “5G Evolution.” Haes explained, when asked by Councilor Sean Powers, that 5G is just the next generation of minimum speed required to eliminate latency. 5G Evolution mimics the speeds of 5G but does not eliminate the latency.
Eger said, “I just want to be clear that mini-cells are going to be the vehicle that delivers 5G. I still think this is a poor location for it.”
O’Brien asked how the location for mini-cell antennae were chosen. Dolan told him that engineers identify where there are capacity issues and the “small geographical area” where they need to place an antenna to fill in those coverage gaps. The power utility then informs the company on which pole in that area the antenna can be placed.
“We have facilities like this one on hundreds of poles throughout the Commonwealth,” Dolan said.
O’Brien asked if there would be a possibility of moving it to the pole across the street to satisfy Eger’s objection, Dolan repeated that utility directs them to use specific polls.
Councilor Nathan Bech asked both Dolan and Haes if either of them would allow their children or grandchildren to sleep in a bedroom next to a pole with this equipment. Neither man expressed any qualms.
The project was approved by a margin of 7 to 2 with Councilors George Kelly and Eger voting against it.
A tax classification plan was brought to the full council for a vote. Councilor Brian Griffin said the proposed tax shift of 1.487 set the residential rate at $16.99 while the commercial rate would be $32.65. A tax shift is the percentage at which the tax burden is distributed to one party over another.
Councilor Bruce Gendron proposed amending the tax rate to 1.488, which would decrease the residential tax rate by $2.30 and increase the commercial tax rate by $17.
Griffin supported Gendron’s amendment, saying, “At one point West Springfield was in the top five of commercial tax rates in the state of Massachusetts. We’ve moved that strategically away from that number – outwards to where we’re in and around number 17, so that’s really beneficial.”
Griffin did warn that the town is close to the maximum shift of 1.5. He expressed concern that the town would not have much room to ease a financial crisis through tax manipulation if they were already close to the maximum.
“We have not taxed to the full limit – it equates to some $8 million, this year, that we are leaving on the table,” Griffin said, noting that it was a strategic move.
Powers asked Griffin to clarify the dollar impact of the amendment. Griffin said property taxes would be $32.73 per thousand on the average single-family property and $198 per thousand for commercial properties.
“Businesses have been bringing in revenue,” Eger said. “If we can make the town more business-friendly and increase its revenue even more, that will more than make up for it.”
Bech said, “We’re talking about very, very small amounts of money but a larger message that we’re sending to the business community.
“I used to think that the commercial tax rate was higher because somehow – they used more resources than residents. Why else would it be double? But I’ve come to understand that businesses pay twice as much as residents, not because they use more – in fact, they use much less. They don’t send their children to the schools, they don’t burden our town government as much as the residents do – but the reason we charge more is because the state lets us and it’s easy and business owners don’t live in town and vote, but the residents do,” he said.
Bech said the town has funding for schools, police and fire because businesses want to locate at the “crossroads of New England.”
Gendron’s amendment failed 2 to 7. The original tax of 1.487 passed unanimously.
The council also considered the acceptance of two streets as public ways, Alexander Drive and Austin Lane.
Powers took the opportunity to advocate for the concerns of neighbors that the developer had not abided by all requirements for the development.
“If we’re talking about requiring people to get rid of their septic tanks, if we’re talking about having to put in sidewalks that all of these developments were supposed to have, that a lot of these developers were responsible for, I have an issue with the developers themselves,” Powers said. “If you’re not meeting those, I’m not sure why we’re allowing you to continue building in town.”
Powers continued, “developments are good for the area and we bring families in and it helps businesses but it also puts an extra burden on our schools, our sewers, our water – everything we’re complaining about.”
Gendron said his understanding is that the outstanding issues had been resolved in this case.
Powers said he understood that the acceptance of the streets needs to be done to service the residents that have bought homes there, but also stressed that developers should be conforming to the requirements if they’re going to be allowed to build.
Both roads were accepted as public ways.
In other business before the council, the amount of $37,517.16 was appropriated for wage negotiations between the mayor’s office and United Municipal Employees of West Springfield.
The council approved the relocation of Verizon equipment at Piper Road and Birnie Avenue, part of the Volt-Var Optimization project.
Dr. Heather Sankey was appointed to the Board of Health.
The subcommittee on ordinance and policy worked on Powers’s proposed ordinance change allowing more outdoor seating for businesses and approved a proposal to allow cordials to be sold by those businesses with beer and wine licenses. They also discussed a suggestion from Kelly to allow water and sewer bill relief for the elderly, veterans and those under financial strain.
The traffic and safety subcommittee discussed town-wide speeding issues. Gendron said that the Massachusetts Department of Transportation is studying speeding on Route 20 and said he was “happy to hear about that.”
Griffin addressed Gendron and Council President George Condon, both of whom will vacate their seats after the Dec. 16 meeting. Griffin said that while he will not be attending that meeting, he wanted to express admiration for both of them. Griffin called Gendron’s work “exemplary,” and said Condon was one of the best moderators he had ever seen.