VTel grilled over Calais tower plan

After being booted from Plainfield, the Vermont Telephone Co. Inc. is again facing resistance to a proposed telecommunications tower, this time in Calais.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20150420/BUSINESS01/704209965

Published April 20, 2015 in the Rutland Herald VTel grilled over Calais tower plan By Eric Blaisdell STAFF WRITER CALAIS — After being booted from Plainfield, the Vermont Telephone Co. Inc. is again facing resistance to a proposed telecommunications tower, this time in Calais. Springfield-based VTel is planning to build a 140-foot tower along Bayne Comolli Road. VTel notified the Public Service Board about its plans in February. The company had hoped to put a similar tower on Upper Road in Plainfield, but scrapped its plan in October after the town opposed construction of the tower because it wanted VTel to instead put its equipment on a Cloud Alliance tower about 2,000 feet from the proposed location. At a special meeting Wednesday night at Calais Elementary School, the Select Board heard from Downs Rachlin Martin attorneys representing VTel and from Gordon Matthews, site acquisition manager for the company. Jim Porter and Dan Burke from the Department of Public Works also attended to hear community feedback. The majority of the feedback was anything but positive. One of the bigger sticking points was a balloon test VTel conducted to show the tower’s visibility if built. VTel conducted one test April 6 but claims someone put the balloon about 30 feet higher than it should have been. Because of this, the company had to conduct another test April 8. Calais officials weren’t happy with the amount of notice they got about the rescheduling. “We had 13 hours’ notice,” board Chairwoman Denise Wheeler said, “if anybody had thought to even check the (VTel) website, which nobody did because we had no idea. You didn’t communicate with the Select Board to even let them know that the second test was being done. I think that’s really unfair.” Board member John Brabant said he took time off work, for which he received grief, to attend the first balloon test. “It was that important to this town,” Brabant said. “I know the people here wanted their Select Board represented there. I bent over backward to perform my role to the best of my ability, and when I’m reaching out and I’m doing my end of it, there was an expectation of communication.” Attorney Elizabeth Kohler said balloon tests aren’t required but are meant to help show the public where the tower will be. She said VTel had a very small window of good weather in which to conduct the test, so it had to act fast. As for whether the board will support the tower, Brabant said members will need time to look over the proposal, digest and discuss it and come to a decision — time that VTel didn’t appear prepared to give. Brabant wanted to know when VTel would submit its application for the tower to the Public Service Board. Kohler said VTel will apply once it has everything it needs. The company hoped to file today, but that no longer looks realistic. She said once VTel does file, the town will have an opportunity to communicate with the PSB as a party to the proceedings. Wheeler wanted a statement from Kohler saying VTel won’t file its application until the Select Board has come to a decision about the tower at its April 27 meeting. “I don’t think that’s too much to ask,” Wheeler said. Kohler was noncommittal, saying VTel could consider waiting a week. “I think we have to assess other deliverables and get back to you,” Kohler said. “I don’t think we know.” Kohler said VTel still needs to complete its evaluation of natural resources and historic properties, as well as other pieces for the application that should be coming in soon. Board member Scott Bassage asked why VTel wanted to put the tower on Bayne Comolli Road, which he didn’t feel was an appropriate spot, given that the area is very rural. “This is a tiny little neighborhood of hand-built houses on a twisty, narrow road,” he said. “You could characterize the neighborhood as maybe Vermont in the 1960s.” Bassage and others wanted to know why VTel couldn’t co-locate on a Cloud Alliance tower in nearby Woodbury. Matthews said the Woodbury tower is about 3½ miles from the proposed Calais tower. He said putting VTel’s equipment on that tower wouldn’t give enough coverage for the 1,179 “rooftops” this proposed tower would cover. He said VTel also has a tower in Hardwick, and putting equipment on the Woodbury tower would cause too much overlap in coverage between the two towns. Residents were skeptical the proposed tower would provide coverage to 1,179 rooftops, since that data was collected by the federal government in 2008 and could be out of date. People added that FairPoint Communications has come in since 2008 and provided broadband service for the area. Kohler said the federal government, which is funding the proposed tower through a stimulus grant, wants there to be competition by more than one provider in the area to bring better service and lower prices. After the meeting, Matthews said the proposed Calais tower is a separate project from the failed Plainfield tower. Had the Plainfield tower gone through, he said, VTel would still have planned on building this tower.