To the editor,
I live on Plumb Street and knew nothing about the cell tower with the apparent address of 877 South St. being built at the top of multiple residential streets. Seeing as the construction company used Plumb and Alma streets to access and construct the tower compound, let’s call it what it is: an Alma Street tower.
I do have the expectation that the community be made aware of construction, especially construction happening in their neighborhood. I would hope ward councilors could be more informative of constituents. However, how can a ward councilor inform anyone when the project bypasses City Council, or if it has a misleading address?
I don’t read the paper and I don’t have a cellphone. I do have a landline and an email address and those would be a much better way of contacting me than a one-inch notification in the legal section of a paper I don’t read. And if someone suggests I take a weekly trip to City Hall to look through the notices and per chance see something about construction on an address so distant from my own, I would suggest this is a completely ineffective way of spreading information.
Our own city councilors who attend regular meetings at City Hall knew nothing about the tower. Where is the transparency in that?
I don’t want the tower located here and neither does anyone. A residential neighborhood is not an appropriate location at all for this. Tear it down and build a playground instead. That would be a better thing to build for the 11-plus children living within 300 feet of the construction site. It is certainly a project all of us could get behind.
Eddie Algerio,
Pittsfield
Published in the Berkshire Eagle
https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/letter-residential-neighborhood-not-a-good-place-for-pittsfield-cell-tower,611963