POINT PLEASANT BEACH — In the wake of last week’s sudden construction of several 5G small-cell wireless towers in the borough, the Point Pleasant Beach mayor and council on Tuesday night concurred with residents who attended the meeting in opposing further network development from the telecommunications industry in the borough.
Last week, five small-cell wireless towers, used to connect users to the 5G wireless network, were erected in the eastern portion of Point Pleasant Beach, in locations including Niblick Street and Water Street. As of Tuesday, the borough’s request to halt new construction had been accepted and the number remains at five.
The fifth-generation network has an increased bandwidth and can connect more devices than previous 4G; unlike 4G, all devices connected via 5G have internet connectivity. Fifth-generation networks, while smaller in their range of connectivity, also provide increased carrying capacity for crowded areas.
During committee reports, Mayor Doug Vitale issued a statement outlining the borough’s current plan to push back against the towers. He began by giving the public a rundown of the borough’s recent history with 5G technology, which commonly refers to the fifth-generation technology standards of cellular networks.
“I just want to start with putting the facts out there so you guys understand how we came to where we are right now, and I just want to clear up some misconceptions,” said the mayor. “Back in 2017, Mayor (Stephen) Reid took a stand that the town was not in favor of 5G poles…nothing really happened thereafter.”
“In 2018 there was an FCC (Federal Communications Commission) mandate that said that they could come in and use the town’s right-of-ways to construct these 5G poles,” said Mayor Vitale. “In 2021, after discussions with the borough attorney, the mayor and council adopted ordinance 2021-22, regulating the placement of the small-cell towers in the borough’s right-of-ways. This ordinance mandated that they use large poles so many carriers could co-locate on one pole. If you see the poles now, they’re rather large in width — that is so the three telecom vendors could use one pole. If not, we would have had three or four poles at one location.”
Mayor Vitale, who was a councilman at the time of the 2021-22 adoption, explained that, at the time, the ordinance seemed to be a proactive way to get out in front of the FCC’s guidance on towers.
“Look, I was a member of the council at the time — I was not the council president as was stated on social media,” said the mayor. Councilwomen Arlene Testa and Caryn Byrnes were also council members at that time who voted “yes” to adopt the ordinance. “I voted on that because I thought…‘let’s get ahead of what the FCC is trying to do.’”
“In April of 2021, the governing body executed a right-of-way agreement with Munisite, the company that’s now constructing the poles, for 27 locations around the town,” Mayor Vitale continued. “In May of 2022 they came back to the mayor and council asking for another 41 locations, and they were denied.”
“In January 2023, (Munisite) made contact with the town to start UCC (Ultra Cloud Core, used to connect many 5G services in one cloud-based platform) and engineering reviews…On Oct. 10, 2023, the borough engineer and construction official approved the first eight locations; to date, there are five poles that are up and standing…Nobody on this dais saw any design specs. When this first came out in 2021, I asked for design specs and was told, ‘let’s wait until we get closer to the project, and then we’ll release the design specs…’ We had no idea what we were putting into the ground.”
The mayor concluded by saying that the “entire process,” including the size and shape of the nodes, was run through the building department with “no say” and “no notification” to the mayor or council at the time. The locations were chosen by Munisite, according to the mayor, and twice-approved by the council via execution of a contract.
“I am in agreement with the entire council — and probably with all of you — that these are an eyesore. We have to do something,” Mayor Vitale said. “We’re working on a date to meet with (Munisite), which we think is going to be sometime in early July.”
Collins emphasized that as of Tuesday evening’s council meeting, Munisite had voluntarily ceased tower construction until further notice at the borough’s request.
“Munisite has voluntarily agreed to not complete any further installations or construction at the borough’s request, pending our opportunity to meet with them,” said Collins. “Everything’s on hold at the moment. We are going to have that meeting, and we also are reviewing things internally from a legal standpoint — both myself and special counsel that we’ve appointed…are actively looking at that.”
“We’re looking at all legal options; we actually brought on special counsel to assist us with this,” the mayor said. “So, I just wanted to let the residents know that we are doing everything we can as a governing body, legally. And I can’t talk about some of the steps that we’ve discussed privately, but just know that we are doing something. We’re not just going to sit back and let these poles get constructed — whether it’s five, whether it’s 74 — we are doing something to proactively fix this issue.”
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