Communications service allowed to increase cell equipment at water tower in Marblehead

MARBLEHEAD The Planning Board has approved increases in cell equipment at the Tower Way water tower Tuesday night, but despite the urging of town officials, the board was one vote away from denying the application from Metro Personal Communications Service.With four members sitting on the board – Chairman Philip Helmes, James Bishop, Karl Johnson and Edward Nilsson – Bishop made a motion to deny the application.?This is not something I?m comfortable with,” Bishop said. “They (Village Street neighbors of the site) have real concerns for their safety.”When Bishop made a motion to deny the application, Helmes argued with him instead of calling for a second, the usual parliamentary procedure.It was only after further discussion by other members that Nilsson seconded the motion to deny. Bishop and Nilsson voted to deny the motion while Helmes and Johnson voted against denial. On a tie vote, that motion failed.Helmes said the application was in compliance with the town?s current bylaw but pushed for Town Planner Becky Curran and his colleagues to come up with changes in the bylaw, particularly in the area of health concerns.In addition to Curran, Town Administrator Tony Sasso and Water and Sewer Superintendent Dana Snow attended the meeting. Sasso offered no public comments but Snow read a statement indicating that the present cell tower emissions are well below safety standards.About a dozen people at the hearing questioned those findings, however. Village Street resident Barbara Karademos said she was in contact with U.S. Rep. John Tierney, D-Salem, on federal safety standards for cell phone equipment and asked the board to delay their decision until she heard back from him.Karademos? lawyer, Attorney Edward Collins, questioned the board?s right to issue a special permit for the equipment, since he said there are no regulations for it, and said they should consider a variance on the equipment instead.Linda Weltner told the board no independent research has been done on cell equipment safety since Congress passed the 1996 Federal Telecommunications Act.News of the hearing reached all the way to Wayland. Two Wayland women, Diana Warren and Peggy Patten, attended the hearing to question the effect on public safety and try to stiffen the board?s resolve to deny the application.In the end, after resolving to rewrite the town bylaw, the Planning Board unanimously approved the application, with conditions and with that Bishop called “great reluctance.”