To the editor:

Come on, Pittsfield. The mayor and councilors are (supposed to be) here for the people, and to support and protect the people. Not only was there no notification and no community awareness of a Verizon Wireless cell tower, there is also no need for it to be placed where it has been started, right within a densely populated area! Permission for this tower, in this family-packed residential neighborhood with a 35-foot height restriction, never should have been granted. What an egregious, misguided error.

I, along with the 800 people who have signed the two petitions, are asking you, our elected officials, to rescind this and stop the tower now. Plus, there are already towers visible from this neighborhood. And, Verizon’s coverage map shows full 4G coverage in the area. This is in addition to this area’s significant historical past of being tribal nations land, part of the original Arrowhead farm and abutting Herman Melville’s homestead, which is a national historic landmark.

Here in Pittsfield, where there are surely so many other potential sites that do not impact such a populated neighborhood with so many families with young children, certainly a better tower location could be found.

This is not right. It is outrageous and unconscionable. These families care about their children and the value of their home and land. They work hard to make safe and healthy choices for their families. If you allow the tower to go up, you are subjecting them to choices they would have never made and had absolutely no say in.

Who would want to live, raise children or send their child to day care under a cell tower? And if the tower continues, who would purchase a house on those streets with those risks? No one in their right mind. Verizon has an extensive history of sneakily insinuating and starting cell tower sites with no care or foresight into the long-term effect on these neighborhoods’ families, their safety, lowered real estate value, etc. We are calling on Mayor Linda Tyer, all councilors and zoning authorities, and all concerned people of Pittsfield to stop this tower in its tracks. Hear this, Mayor Tyer, all councilors, all neighbors and people of Pittsfield and surrounding towns: Stop the tower.

Nancy St. John

Pittsfield

Published in Berkshire Eagle
https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/letter-cell-tower-plan-an-infringement-on-neighborhood,609149