Residents of the Town of Gardiner have long been complaining about poor wireless reception and worrying about how they would manage to contact first responders in an emergency. The quest for an appropriate site for a cell tower serving the town went on for more than a decade, with potential locations at the town landfill on Steve’s Lane, the highway garage on South Mountain Road and the grounds of the town hall itself being proposed, vociferously argued over, and ultimately shot down.
Finally, a site on property belonging to Wright’s Farm on Route 208 received approval in 2014, and construction got under way last year. As often seems to happen in cases of controversial development projects, the actual moment when Gardiner-based cell phone transmission service came online went largely unremarked. But according to town supervisor Marybeth Majestic, speaking at the August 9 Gardiner town board meeting, “AT&T is switched on.”
A second wireless carrier, Verizon, still has to have its equipment atop the cell tower inspected and pay a permit fee before it can begin providing service. “The ball’s in their court,” said the supervisor.
The tower was designed with the capacity to accommodate an additional two carriers, in addition to required emergency broadcast equipment.
“and worrying about how they would manage to contact first responders in an emergency.” really?
This is what I think: According to the article, AT&T service is up and running. My husband’s AT&T phone shows “no service,” as usual. My Verizon phone has little to no service, as it has always had. Oddly, a recent article in NP Times stated that both AT&T and Verizon had installed antennas on the Wright Farm cell tower; however, this current article indicates that Verizon equipment is not installed. On the Wright Farm cell tower. In the words of the prophets, whatever. Our home has 2 landlines which are staying in place until Verizon decides to just shut down its landline business. Then we’ll resurrect my husband’s amateur radio setup. I’m studying Morse code with an emphasis on profanity.