Verizon Tower Still Undecided Before MVC
An 18-month public hearing came to an end last week on a plan by Verizon to increase the height of its Vineyard Haven cell by 50 feet.
An 18-month public hearing came to an end last week on a plan by Verizon to increase the height of its Vineyard Haven cell by 50 feet.
A public hearing on a plan to increase the height of a Verizon communications tower in Vineyard Haven was closed Thursday after the MVC received written testimony from Island arborists.
Debate continued last week before the Martha’s Vineyard Commission over Verizon’s plan to raise a communication tower in Vineyard Haven.
Verizon Wireless wants to raise its communication tower in Vineyard Haven from 77 to about 130 feet out of concern for trees that could block sightlines.
Cell phone coverage in Chilmark and Aquinnah will get a boost, this time for Verizon customers, after the major carrier signed on to use the digital antenna system (DAS) in the up-Island towns.
Chilmark executive secretary Tim Carroll said on Wednesday that testing is in its final stages, and that full Verizon Wireless service could be available as soon as June 1 or July 1 at the latest. AT&T signed on to the DAS system as a carrier last year.
Verizon’s proposal to build a cell phone tower to improve service in West Tisbury came before the Martha’s Vineyard Commission last week, sparking a long discussion and volumes of correspondence protesting the location of the tower near Tisbury Great Pond.
The company has proposed installing an 80-foot tower on a 50-square-foot piece of land on New Lane in West Tisbury, and has identified three potential locations for the tower. Two of the sites are in the inland zone of the coastal district of critical planning concern.