Completed system would include 16 towers
Susan Van Dongen
NORTH HANOVER —Representatives from the Burlington County Department of Public Safety came to the March 16 Township Committee meeting to discuss specifics and answer questions about a 911 safety tower proposed to be erected here.
The tower, which is supposed to be located behind the municipal building on Schoolhouse Road in the Jacobstown section of the township, is part of a new county public safety communications network.
When completed, the system will have 16 towers, stretching from Bordentown to Bass River townships, with over a dozen sites in between.
Residents are concerned about the placement of the tower for various reasons, including health and aesthetic concerns, and have spoken out in opposition.
A crowd of 60 people showed up to hear four county representatives attempt to shed some light on these worries, and talk about possible alternative sites.
Harold DeLaRoi, Management Specialist for the Burlington County Freeholders, gave an overview of the project that he said has been in the planning stages for several years.
He talked of the need to overhaul and update the old system, which receives about 2 million emergency calls every year, and was constructed primarily for mobile radios.
“Today there are over 2,400 portable radios used in the system (by police and emergency personnel),” he said. “Technology has improved so much over the last 25 years. The existing equipment is outdated. It’s tough to find parts should we need to make repairs.”
Thomas Shular, an independent public safety consultant hired by the county to design and implement the system, told of tests the county did to determine locations in the county where communications signals were weak, and said that the county’s northeast corner was one of them.
“We need the portable-based communications where police and emergency personnel can communicate from inside a building, with their portable radios,” he said. “This is a very important part of public safety communications today.”
Addressing the issue of property devaluation, Mr. Shular said, “In all the years I’ve been involved in radio systems, no one has demonstrated that they’ve lost value on their property when they went to sell it because of a public safety tower nearby. If you’re talking about a commercial tower or big array of towers, that’s another story.”
The proposed tower will be 180 feet high with a 20-foot concrete base. It would be 17 feet wide at the bottom would taper to the top.
Jeff Matheson, technical manager for Burlington County’s central communications, recognized that the township’s public safety personnel has had quite problems over the past few years.
“They’ve operated under difficult circumstances,” said Mr. Matheson. “Unfortunately the existing system cannot enhance the coverage in this area.”
Tom Von Schmidt, a local resident said he and some neighbors had done some research.
“We found that there’s a property in Ellisdale, on Jim Potts’ property, possibly the highest point in township, with an existing antenna that the county is using,” said Mr. Von Schmidt. “It’s available to the county free of charge. Why not use it?”
“The tower is already loaded,” he said. “We would need to put six to nine additional vertical antennas on it. That would exceed the loading of Jim Potts’ tower,” said Mr. Matheson.
Township resident Joe Smylie asked, “If township decides we don’t want it here, would you look elsewhere?”
“If we don’t put it here, fire and other emergency people would be without coverage,” said Mr. Shular. “Mr. Potts’ site would not give us the coverage. If we could use it, we would.”
Wayne Wharton, chief of Cookstown Fire Company, said, “We’ve had calls down on the lower end of the township, where I’ve had trouble communicating with central. There are places in Cookstown, where I can’t talk to anybody. I couldn’t talk to my assistant chief inside the building. Now we’re finally going to get a system that’s going to make our jobs easier.”
David Gindlesperger, chief of Jacobstown Fire Company, agreed with Mr. Wharton, and spoke about the difficulty in actually calling firefighters to respond to alarms.
“We’ve had trouble getting pagers to activate,” he said. “There are still firemen on the New Egypt side of town and their pagers don’t go off, so they don’t know we’ve had calls.”
Sgt. Mark Keebler of the North Hanover Police Department said, “it’s not just the north end of the township. The entire length of New Egypt-Cookstown Road is a dead area too. This is a serious situation.”
“I’d like to address the issue of property values,” said resident Frank Bencivengo. “I’ve testified as an expert witness in other tower cases in New Jersey, and no matter whether it’s public safety or a commercial tower, there are health concerns.
“And real estate values are tied into the health and safety concerns. Even though scientific research says there’s no evidence that (people could be harmed) from these towers, it’s the fear that they may be that is the issue.”
County representatives described in detail the elaborate fence and security system protecting the towers.
“We put a 10-foot chain link fence at base of the tower, which is designed so that children cannot climb under it as well as over it,” said Mr. Matheson.
Resident Dave Swann asked whether the William C. Doyle Veterans Cemetery on Provinceline Road had been looked at, since it is one of the highest points in the township.
“No, we didn’t look at the cemetery,” Mr. Matheson said, who added there may be red tape with the property since it is state-owned.
“I’ll bring other veterans down on you if you even consider putting it in the vets cemetery,” said resident Joe Madden. “You always have to stick it to the veterans!”
Mayor John Kocubinski thanked the participants and residents who came out saying, “We were here tonight to boil down the information and analyze what is best for everyone. The tower is a public safety issue. If we can find a place that’s more suitable, and if it works, we’ll investigate an alternative.”
“This was the ultimate site,” said Mr. Matheson. “Anything up on this hill was our first choice. We’re trying to bring Burlington County communications into the 21st century through a good, reliable communications system.”