Cell tower approved for local cemetery site Omnipoint changed location after residents raised health concerns BY MARY ANNE ROSS Correspondent OLD BRIDGE –– A cell tower plan that local homeowners began fighting in 2004 will be allowed to go up in a new location: a local cemetery. The Planning Board approved the construction of an Omnipoint cell tower at Mount Hebron Cemetery, which is located in an industrial zone on Morristown Road. Omnipoint’s representatives have long stated that there is a shortage of frequency coverage in the eastern section of Old Bridge. “There has been a gap between our current transmitters, and that causes dropped calls and interruptions. A new tower at this site will provide more reliable service,” Gary Alcon, an electrical engineer from T-Mobile, which owns Omnipoint, told the board. Omnipoint originally wanted to build the cell tower at Shurgard Storage on Route 34. However, nearby residents of Van Ethel Drive and Amboy Road raised concerns about health issues and a possible decrease in property values. They formed a group called REACT (Residents Emerge Against Cell Tower), which actively protested the 130-foot monopole. After a two-year battle, the company decided to change its proposed site. Mount Hebron Cemetery borders the Park Plaza Mall so closely that some of the headstones stand up against the fence that separates the property from the stores’ parking lot. There is a mausoleum and crematorium on the premises. Many of the inscriptions on the headstone are written in Hebrew or Hebrew and English. The cemetery is on the township’s list of historic sites, though it is not on any state Register of Historic Places, according to Ann Miller, a member of both the Planning Board and the Historic Preservation Commission. Old Bridge Township Planner Sam Rizzo said the town has requested that a survey be done of the historical section of the cemetery to ensure that it will not be disturbed. Omnipoint has approval to erect the cell tower on a wooded and undeveloped portion at the rear of the cemetery property. The tower will stand 130 feet, and other wireless carriers will also be able to place their transmitters there. “Our township ordinances allow for cell towers, but we require that they allow more than just one company to transmit from each tower,” Planning Board Chairman Lawrence Redmond said. “Otherwise there would just be too many of them.” The tower will be surrounded by a fence, and Omnipoint will have a right of way on the cemetery property so it can access and provide maintenance to the cell tower. Wayne Pomanowski, owner of the Key Asset Management business across the street from the cemetery, questioned Omnipoint representatives at the board meeting regarding the close proximity of the graves to the tower. He was assured that there were no graves or plots near the intended site. “I just don’t think it’s appropriate to have this tower in a cemetery,” he said. Ron Chapman, whose wife has owned Ronnie’s Place retail store on Route 34 for 19 years, shares similar concerns. The back of the store property runs up against the back of the cemetery. “It will look like the tower is coming out of the roof of our building. It will look terrible,” he said. Gerard Haran, who is the mayor’s designee on the Planning Board, was also concerned about aesthetics. “We on the Planning Board have one chance to do this right, and I think first of all that they could build a different type of tower that might not be so obtrusive. And I’m not entirely convinced they really need this tower,” he said. Still, the new location is better. “I do have to give kudos to the board for keeping it out of a residential area,” he noted. Redmond also felt it was a better choice. The courts are very clear that municipalities have to allow cell towers to go up somewhere in town. “Many communities have been sued over these issues, so we have to make the best of it. This new site is much better than the prior one,” Redmond said.