Forks To Have Study Done On Monopole Safety

Forks Township will investigate the safety of a cellular tower before allowing T-Mobile to place an antenna on it after a neighboring resident expressed concerns.

Representatives from T-Mobile appeared before the township Board of Supervisors last week to obtain approval to place an antenna on a monopole structure at 3515 Glover Road. The board voted 3-2 in favor of the proposal. Voting against the motion were supervisors C. David Howell and Lilly Gioia.

Several cellular companies already have antennas on the structure. Monopoles were originally used for radio transmissions.

At least one resident expressed concerns over the structural integrity of the monopole. Howell echoed those concerns, saying that at winds of 65 mph the pole begins to sway and has the potential to fall.

Supervisor Robert Egolf, who voted for the antenna installation, nevertheless agreed about the safety concern. “I think a second opinion is very important,” he said. “It’s our ignorance in part that is causing this problem. Let’s let the professionals write the specs.”

Concerns over the safety of the pole prompted two additional motions -- one to allow for a study on the safety of the monopole, and another to table the preliminary and final land development review. Both motions passed.

Supervisor Erik Chuss said he was in disbelief at the decision to spend money on a study.

“We have a Pennsylvania-state certified engineer who said that it’s OK already,” said Chuss. “We at some point have to rely on the experts. There are no red flags from the engineering report issued from the township engineer.”

Supervisor David Billings said he didn’t think that an additional study was a “wise use of taxpayers money."

But Egolf said he would like to be reassured before approving the antenna.

“I don’t want a school bus to drive by that tower in a high wind and have it fall on that school bus and then we say we could have done a study but we were too cheap,” said Egolf.

T-Mobile representatives will appear before the board at a later time with their own structural engineer.

After the first vote, Gioia questioned why Billings did not recuse himself because he is an employee of AT&T. But Billings insisted there was no conflict of interest because he is not associated with the cellular portion of AT&T.