Okay Pete. As a T-Mobile customer, I must ask. What is the problem with equipping that architecturally insignificant water tower with 21st century technology? Somehow, I found your vote to be inconsistent. You got some splainin' to do.

Ron,

Is T-mobile service really that bad?

And how can they vote without knowing how much cash T-Mobile's going to pay?

At first glance, I think I'd agree with a no vote. I don't agree with the reasons provided for a yes vote as stated in the newpaper article.

Interesting site for searching for antennae

quote:

Originally posted by middlein87:
Ron,

Is T-mobile service really that bad?

And how can they vote without knowing how much cash T-Mobile's going to pay?

At first glance, I think I'd agree with a no vote. I don't agree with the reasons provided for a yes vote as stated in the newpaper article.

T-Mobile has a nice product for my purposes, but there are pockets of Glen Ellyn, especially in the downtown business district, where cell service is non-existent. And for all who say, get another carrier, I ask, isn't this request an example of a carrier responding to their market?

I agree that T-Mobile should pony up, and that info should be out there. I did not read that as Pete's reason for the no vote. Is there lease or tax money out there for T-Mobile to pay? C'mon, we have to get that fountain built and maintained somehow.

He says the water tower is "not pretty", but a 7X10 structure at the top of a white edifice that sits in the middle of a residential neighborhood is going to do what...make it more "not pretty"?

Perhaps we should get out that invisibility cloak....

The fountain aspect kind of changes my thinking. You may be right.

quote:

Originally posted by ronkas:
Okay Pete. As a T-Mobile customer, I must ask. What is the problem with equipping that architecturally insignificant water tower with 21st century technology? Somehow, I found your vote to be inconsistent. You got some splainin' to do.

Ron,
I was told you had a question for me on this site.
I have switched over to the NWBURBS site but I would be happy to answer your question.
I am all in favor of everyone in Glen Ellyn having the best coverage we can get without taking away from the visual landscape of our town. I will try and post a few pictures of similar installations. If I cannot I would be happy to e-mail them to you. The water tower is relatively insignificant by design.
When it was constructed it was designed to have soft lines and was painted helio blue to blend in with the sky, as much as a 750,000 gallon storage tank can.
Now we take that relatively obscure structure and mount a 7.5 ft. high x 13ft foot wide commercial radio antennae structure on top of it and it starts to look like a Gary Indiana cracking plant.
Were do we draw the line.
Now do we let the next cellular company mount one on top of that so we aren't accused of playing favorites?
There are other options open to T-Mobile which they have identified themselves which would not affect the rest of the residents of this town.
Good to hear from you.
Pete

Cell-Tower-IMG_1155resize.jpg (125 Kb, 400 downloads)

That was a good vote Mr. Ladesic.

I'm really starting to believe that Village President Vicky Hase might despise her neighbors the way she so consistently works to harm them and work against their interests. And shame on Norton - that was so weak to not vote on it, there was no conflict of interest there. I can only imagine that he had only two choices, to vote for it - or abstain, And he just lacked the spine to publicly harm his neighbors yet again.

I just felt the need to voice my strong support for Mr. Ladesic's leadership on the issue. Well done, Pete. Just a shame it fell to Miss Vicky to decide.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jombl,

Two things:

JOMBL: Even if you are not back, it's good to hear from you. My daughter loved West Virginia. You were right. It's a nice spot.

Pete: My best to you. I believe the line is drawn at the ordinance - minimum. Could we have the alternatives? Was the vote limited to this design, or to the existence of the antenna? Respectfully, the comparison to Gary is a little much. I live in a neighborhood where the property values are held down by the existence of overcrowded and drug infested apartments. Ask anyone trying to sell a house by Roosevelt Road. And then, we have pay day loan stores which replace day labor locations. But.....we have Potbelly's coming in! An antenna which is 7 X 10 (or 13), is really not problem to me, and I suspect the majority of Glen Ellyn feels the same. But then, I grew up in the townhomes on east Irving Park Road in Bensenville - what do I know about aesthetics?

Sorry guys, I haven't had any free speech problems here.

quote:

Originally posted by Candidate:
Now do we let the next cellular company mount one on top of that so we aren't accused of playing favorites?

Other cellular companies have similar needs and I'm sure they'd like to put a cell site in the center of town. They've got cell towers at the periphery of Glen Ellyn, but I think only Verizon currently has a cell site in the center of town (on that water tower). AT&T has bit of a coverage hole in the center of town. Sprint and T-Mobile seem to be in worse shape since they operate at a higher frequency.

quote:

Originally posted by Candidate:
There are other options open to T-Mobile which they have identified themselves which would not affect the rest of the residents of this town.
Pete

What other options did they mention? If I recall, one alternative mentioned in an earlier version of this fight was to build a cell tower on top of the post office at Main and Pennsylvania.

Paul

quote:

Other cellular companies have similar needs and I'm sure they'd like to put a cell site in the center of town. They've got cell towers at the periphery of Glen Ellyn, but I think only Verizon currently has a cell site in the center of town (on that water tower). AT&T has bit of a coverage hole in the center of town. Sprint and T-Mobile seem to be in worse shape since they operate at a higher frequency.

I was of the assumption that there are a couple of cell towers on the top of Village Hall. Is that true?

And to you anti-tower people, has/can anyone point to any real impact this add-on to the tower will have to anyone?

I have T-Mobile and the coverage downtown is quite pathetic. I have to walk around holding my phone out until I get a couple of bars and then stand still in one spot so I don't lose it. I think the guy we almost ran over in the middle of Crescent at Main was doing that yesterday morning.

Nonetheless, I too have concerns about how the village can accommodate all of the cellular companies that will likely want to add antennas for coverage too. The one in the picture Pete posted isn't so bad but can it be expanded when more cell companies want it added?

Pete, wish you would have been on the board when they were voting about the clinic....too bad the trustee who is abstaining because of conflict of interest didn't do the same for the clinic situation or it would have been a closer vote. Can't wait for the project to be complete, the berm to go up, and the first kid sailing down on his/her bike to get pummeled by a car exiting the clinic lot (sic). I digress....

So, I won't pretend to be a font of knowledge on this issue but it seems like the larger concern is not what this one addition might look like but the slippery slope accepting it creates when other cellular companies want an antenna too.

quote:

Originally posted by JRPotts:

quote:

Other cellular companies have similar needs and I'm sure they'd like to put a cell site in the center of town. They've got cell towers at the periphery of Glen Ellyn, but I think only Verizon currently has a cell site in the center of town (on that water tower). AT&T has bit of a coverage hole in the center of town. Sprint and T-Mobile seem to be in worse shape since they operate at a higher frequency.

I was of the assumption that there are a couple of cell towers on the top of Village Hall. Is that true?

And to you anti-tower people, has/can anyone point to any real impact this add-on to the tower will have to anyone?

JR
Is is ok to call you JR?
Yes, there are antennas mounted inside the clock tower of the Civic Center.
There are celllular antennae on a number of buildings all over town we just can't see them.
To answer your next question.
The installation of the structure on top of the existing tower may actually reduce your air conditioning costs a little so it might impact you, in a good way though. I'll know where to head on one of the upcoming hot muggy days.
If there were no alternative sites like behind a brick surround on the old Glen Ellyn Bank building or such, I would have more sympathy for T-Mobile and the ? number of people actually affected by their dead spot in town.
Good to hear from you too. Maybe I will have to check back in here more often.
How tall is casa de Potts?
Pete

quote:

Originally posted by JRPotts:
I was of the assumption that there are a couple of cell towers on the top of Village Hall. Is that true?

I think you're right. I was doing searches on cellular licenses and didn't see any for the Village Hall location. It looks like Nextel has an antenna license for the Village Hall. They have a Specialized Mobile Radio license, so they didn't show up when I was searching for cellular licenses.

quote:

Originally posted by Candidate
There are celllular antennae on a number of buildings all over town we just can't see them.

Pete -- I've not found many cellular antenna sites within central Glen Ellyn at either the FCC site or at AntennaSearch.com. Where are they located? I know they can be hard to detect.

Paul

quote:

Originally posted by Paul:

quote:

Originally posted by JRPotts:
I was of the assumption that there are a couple of cell towers on the top of Village Hall. Is that true?

I think you're right. I was doing searches on cellular licenses and didn't see any for the Village Hall location. It looks like Nextel has an antenna license for the Village Hall. They have a Specialized Mobile Radio license, so they didn't show up when I was searching for cellular licenses.

quote:

Originally posted by Candidate
There are cellular antennae on a number of buildings all over town we just can't see them.

Pete -- I've not found many cellular antenna sites within central Glen Ellyn at either the FCC site or at AntennaSearch.com. Where are they located? I know they can be hard to detect.

Paul

Paul,
Aside from the ones at the Civic Center, I think there are a few on the County's water tower north of Ackerman. Verizon has a small existing antenna on top of the Cottage Avenue tower and AT&T Cingular has ring of antennae just below the bulb of the tower. I believe the AT&T Cingular ones are currently not being used. Then its down to Roosevelt Rd. and Nicol Way on the roof of the senior center and then further down Roosevelt to the not so hard to see ones at Roosevelt and Lambert.
I'll let you know as I find others.
Did the ones at the Civic Center show Sprint?

Pete,

Sprint didn't show up at the Civic Center in any searches I found, but they say on their Web site that they installed a tower there within the last 90 days. Maybe they were referring to the Nextel side of Sprint. My impression was that Sprint had sites at Ackerman and the Roosevelt/Lambert area.

I don't think Cingular has a cell site at the Cottage Ave tower -- I thought that never got approved by the village. According to this page at the FCC, they (the old AT&T Wireless) cancelled their application for that site in 2004.

Paul

The registration may be canceled, but the panels still remain beneath the bulb of the water tower. The Village does not require their removal if inactive like other municipalities.

quote:

Originally posted by Paul:
Pete,

Sprint didn't show up at the Civic Center in any searches I found, but they say on their Web site that they installed a tower there within the last 90 days. Maybe they were referring to the Nextel side of Sprint. My impression was that Sprint had sites at Ackerman and the Roosevelt/Lambert area.

I don't think Cingular has a cell site at the Cottage Ave tower -- I thought that never got approved by the village. According to this page at the FCC, they (the old AT&T Wireless) cancelled their application for that site in 2004.

Paul

Paul,
There is a small single existing Verizon antenna on top of the tower and the ring of antennae below the bulb of the tower is AT&T's but not in use. AT&T did not want to relinquish space on their structure to T-Mobile and T-Mobile stated that a location below AT&T's equipment would be too low.
I am fairly certain that if a company already has an FCC license to operate in a general area that they do not need any further FCC approval to add antennae to existing structures within that area. That may be why there is no site specific license showing in your searches.
I will check.
If there is to be a large antennae superstructure mounted on the tallest structure in town we should open it up to every cellular company to be on so that it benefits every tax paying resident regardless of which cellular service we subscribe to.

Apparently there is only room in the base of the tower for one carrier's equipment. Prior to the removal of AT&T's equipment from the tower's base (not the antennas), TMobile indicated they'd need to house their equipment in an external shed. If it's opened up to other carriers, the tower would be surrounded by equipment sheds. What happens when AT&T comes back with it's upgraded equipment--where would it now be housed?

quote:

Originally posted by Dem-in-the-Glen:
Apparently there is only room in the base of the tower for one carrier's equipment. Prior to the removal of AT&T's equipment from the tower's base (not the antennas), TMobile indicated they'd need to house their equipment in an external shed. If it's opened up to other carriers, the tower would be surrounded by equipment sheds. What happens when AT&T comes back with it's upgraded equipment--where would it now be housed?

Dem,
Apparently there is enough room for two carriers maybe three. At&T's stuff is there, Verizon has an antenna there, so I would guess they have equipment of some sort, and T- Mobile may be there soon. If we're going to continue to allow this we need to put more teeth in our cellular leases like many other communities have like making the carriers work it out or get out, use smaller equipment or find another place for their wares.
We own the structure(you and I)so we should make the rules. Many communities make cellular carriers remove unused equipment. Many cellular carriers would love to get out of old leases if they could and some communities work it out with them to facilitate the exit of one carrier and the entrance of another. Some communities have even made cellular carriers put up a structure then the community becomes the owner of the structure and sells additional space on those structures to still other carriers.
I guess if there is a will, there is a way.

can we get an nextel one up there as well?