Parents Voice Concern Over Tower; Board Said It was Never Informed

A recently approved Internet tower atop Maple Hill School caused enough backlash among borough parents that several spoke during the Board of Education meeting on Thursday.

"Times are rough and we all know that, but the children should not be ones who are hurt in Naugatuck's struggle to find revenue sources," Jessica Williams, member of the school's PTO, said during the board meeting at Hop Brook School on Thursday

The proposed tower, which will be built by Sprint-owned Clearwire LLC, received unanimous approval from the , two weeks after it also got a positive referral from the . The borough Board of Mayor and Burgesses also approved the lease agreement in February for the project.

Backers for the tower said it will be a revenue source for the town since the company is renting five locations from the borough in Naugatuck — one of them being Maple Hill School — to place these towers. Mayor Robert A. Mezzo said Thursday night that, from the Maple Hill one alone, it would garner $12,000 in revenue a year for Naugatuck.

The revenue is part of a 20-year contract, earning a total $1.2 million for the borough.

But parents against the project said they don't believe the rhetoric that there could be no adverse effects — despite Clearwire's assurance that the transmission would be so low that studies show there would be no harm to children. The company said the tower would only be used for Internet, however spokesman Robert Stanford said at the zoning meeting there could be future use for cell phones.

Regardless, some parents at the meeting argued they didn't agree with any tower that transmits signals, saying the technology is just too new to determine affects on children.

"The company lines appear to be there are no studies linking this to long-term consequences," said Carol Boscarino, a mother of two children at Maple Hill. "(But) given that this technology is so new there are no long-term consequences periods."

Boscarino added, "we just don't know, and when it comes to children you err on the side of caution."

Some were also concerned due to the fact that the children are inside the building six hours a day, and those transmissions could be ongoing that whole time.

On top of the parents' concerns were the concerns from the board itself — of which some members said they didn't even know this tower was approved until the read about it in the press.

"I personally first learned about a cell phone being placed on Maple Hill last week," board Chairman Kathleen Donovan said. "I know a lot of parents have their concerns, but I think the board has theirs."

According to Mezzo, it was not a legal requirement to inform the board of the proposed tower since the borough owns the school and the proposed tower was a town project through the Land Use Office. But, the mayor noted it would have been a courtesy to let the board know. But the mayor also said he communicated the matter to officials at the Central Administrative Offices.

Superintendent John Tindall-Gibson said he got a call from Stanford on Oct. 26, of Clearwire, detailing his plan to install the tower on the school.

"(Stanford) said he was going through the zoning and planning process and he thought it would be a good idea to share what was going on," Tindall-Gibson said. "So we had (IT director) Alan Merly and (facilities engineer) Mike Lynch there and we listened to him and we talked about how the tower would be installed, where it would be installed, what it would look like."

The superintendent then went on to say there was a "miscommunication" beyond that.

"The board had never been advised of this project," he said.

Donovan then mentioned the borough should reach out to the board before a contract is signed.

"That's more than reasonable," the mayor said.

The borough plans to hold a meeting with the Maple Hill Parent-Teacher Organization at 6:30 p.m. on Monday.

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