East Goshen Supervisors Review Cell Tower

The East Goshen Township Supervisors once again discussed building a cell phone tower within the township limits on Tuesday.

A proposal is in front of the supervisors to construct a tower of a yet to be determined height in the township to increase cell phone reception.

The township would allow a company to build the tower in exchange for a cut of the revenue generated by cell phone service providers renting antenna space within the tower.

“We need to look at this from all sides,” said township supervisor Carmen Battavio.  “We can’t only think about the income, but also that it will be a visual impairment.”

The proposal comes from Liberty Towers, a telecommunications company that specializes in building wireless communication towers.

Liberty Towers is also in negotiations with the owners of the Wawa property next to the East Goshen Township building.

A representative at Tuesday night’s meeting said that the Wawa proposal would go away if the township agreed to build the tower on the same property where the township building stands.

The board of supervisors had also considered building the tower in East Goshen Park.

“The tower companies say that the park is a compromise,” said supervisor Thom Clapper.  “If we insist on the park they may come back to Wawa.”

The board is mainly concerned with how the tower will look aesthetically once constructed.

The representative for Liberty Towers said that most towers are at least 80 feet tall.  

The board of supervisors agreed that finding a design that’s the most pleasing to the eye was the main priority.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, the supervisors rejected a motion to deal with Liberty Towers exclusively and will instead draw up a request for proposal (RFP) shopping the tower construction out to other companies.

According to the Liberty Towers representative, the current proposal put forward to the board could bring in almost $12,000 in revenue per month for the township.

On Thursday, the Liberty Towers Wawa proposal is up for review at the East Goshen Zoning Hearing Board.  That meeting begins at 7:30 p.m.