Stop Bay Head 150' cell tower

Michael Kaschak is organizing this fundraiser.

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Council has passed an ordinance to lease municipal property for a 150' cell tower, but the fight to preserve Bay Head is not over. Our research indicates that when municipal property is leased to a private, for-profit entity that entity is subject to our zoning laws. Planning board review would be required and variances would be needed, a criterion cited by the search committee for rejecting other sites. Our goal is a tower that is the minimum size to service our town, not one to aid cell providers in servicing neighboring towns. Aesthetics are key to everyone regardless of where the tower is located, and a tower that looks like a flagpole, for example, is preferable to a giant plastic tree that looks more like a toilet brush.

The expert hired by the town tells us that because of its location, the chosen site at DPW requires a tower that is 30' higher than the tower it would replace. This is ostensively so it can effectively communicate with the three towers that surround it. Yet a tower at DPW would actually be almost a half mile closer to two of the three towers, and only about two football fields further away from the third tower. No one could explain this incongruity when asked at the last council meeting. The current chosen site also borders wetlands, the same wetlands the town is fighting NJT to preserve.

Sea Bright has a larger land mass and a greater population than Bay Head, yet their tower is much shorter than 150' and looks like a flagpole, not like a plastic tree that is 100' feet higher than any structure or real tree in Bay Head.

A 150' tower will dominate the Twilight Lake skyline and will be visible from everywhere north of Bridge Ave. Experts have told us there are other, less obtrusive alternatives. A temporary tower is providing service, which allows unlimited time to consider other options. We are only asking for the opportunity to present alternatives to be considered with open minds. We are raising funds for legal and technical help to research and provide alternatives that will not change the aesthetics of this small town or affect the wetlands.