Verizon Wireless Agrees Find New Location for Tower 

(Highland Park) After several weeks of negotiations and intervention by US Congressman Frank Pallone & Mayor Meryl Frank, Verizon is working to relocate the temporary tower placed in the municipal parking lot in Raritan Ave.

 

Public officials were caught off guard in February when Verizon Wireless placed a 100 ft temporary cell tower in the center of their downtown business area. Nearly two years ago, the borough reached an agreement with Verizon to place a stealth cell tower in a new building proposed at this site. The company proposed placing a COW or cellular tower on wheels at the site until the building was constructed.  The proposed tower was to be hidden from view in the arts and cultural center.

 

   "Verizon Wireless came to us with an illustration of a COW, which we were told was an unimposing structure" said Mayor Frank, "it looked to us like a mobile home with an antenna on top, not this monstrosity that they built here". Although technically a temporary structure, the cell tower erected in the municipal parking lot resembles towers traditionally placed on highways.

 

Brian Taxman, Chairman of the Mainstreet HP Board said "This doesn't belong in the middle of a downtown". "We loved the idea of the cell tower in the new building, but this doesn't work."

 

   Mayor Frank reached out for assistance from Congressman Frank Pallone who sits on the Telecommunications Committee of the US Congress. "Sometimes it is necessary to get people to sit at a table together to find the best solutions".

 

   Verizon Wireless is actively working to find a new location for the tower in Highland Park. "We are pleased that the Verizon Wireless is able to see us as more than one of their hundreds of thousands of host communities" said Mayor Frank, "Its all about respect, and lots of persistence".

   

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