A company hoping to erect cell phone poles, some as tall as 38 feet, in two of Ocean City’s residential areas was rebuffed Monday night by the City Council. The elected officials are also calling on residents of those neighborhoods to voice their objections as well.
City Engineer Terry McGean told the council Monday that the city staff had denied permits to install about 90 distributed antenna systems in Ocean City, citing concerns on their location and their appearance.
“We have not approved a single one of them at the local level,” McGean said. “We said that we were very strongly opposed to these installations, particularly in our residential neighborhoods where utilities are already undergrounded.”
Mobile operator company Crown Castle first approached resort officials about installing the technology to expand the city’s bandwidth to improve internet accessibility in 2015. That initial proposal sought to install new hardware on existing light and utility poles.
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5 comments:
I guess the city officials have a better idea or way to expand bandwidth and if so should let everyone know.
Hey, Dummies! Why not first consider towers on the other (WEST) side of Assawoman Bay to 1) save the skyline of OC, 2) not litter OC with new towers, 3) not litter the rooftops of higher OC buildings? Two shared towers could cover the whole island and never be seen.
But, no... we want to be dumb...
They want the tourist but they are to a degree denying them the use of their cell phones. Typical Liberal Democrat. The tourist should start going to other vacation spots and all their special events take their money else where also. Then lets see how many towers will be erected. OC will not only lose money but MD Transit will lose money and so will the Transportation Authority because less people will be using the Bay Bridge. OC is a bunch of greedy money hungry dictators. They think the Island is theirs and theirs alone.
It doesn't happen every day, but the city officials have it right this time. Installing 18 foot cell towers in planned residential communities with underground utilities is ridiculous. Not to mention that there is NO bandwidth issues in these residential areas.
I agree with 11:00.
Putting up the poles (90 of them!) would be going in the opposite direction of eventually getting lines buried and making the town look even better.
Also, just as it is with gridlock traffic in OC, problems with bandwidth and cell phone service only occurs during a handful of days throughout the summer. I live in town and have never had any real problem.
Speaking of beautification, I'd like to mention one more thing here, mainly because I'm pretty sure that council members read this blog:
Will somebody PLEASE take the reins and do something about fencing-off dumpsters at the top of streets to the boardwalk? It is absolutely horrible to look at - especially on Wicomico Street.
Just run up the road to Bethany and see how they handle it.
I know this isn't any sort of priority, but the council needs to step back and look at that situation with some fresh eyes. I've never quite understood why something has never been done about this blight that takes away from the beauty of the boardwalk.
Don't they realize that now, on many streets, the first thing visitors see as the step onto the boardwalk is a trash dump?
That's my rant for today. Thanks, Joe.
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