Cell Phones

When the planning board proposed its new "improved" cell phone equipment zoning bylaw a couple of years ago, many of us said it was just a thinly disguised effort to keep cell phone equipment out of Egremont, and consequently it was likely illegal under federal law. (At the time, I was personally told that by representatives of two telecommunications companies.) Well, it looks like Verizon has now informed the town that they want to put cell phone equipment in town and can't under the PB's bylaw, and they may be ready to take legal action if the town doesn't do something.

It's always nice to be able to say "I told you so." But much more importantly, we need cell phone service in town, for safety as well as business reasons. It's time for the selectboard to act. We need a provision that permits - not prohibits - cell phone equipment. Our zoning bylaw contains a careful procedure for issuing special permits that could easily be extended to telecommunications equipment. But if we do that, we should also make the issuing authority the selectboard, not the PB. The PB's history of animosity toward telecommunications equipment disqualifies it from overseeing a permit process as important as this.