A T-Mobile representative came to city hall Monday night to ask the city council to approve a request for ten small cell antennas.
This ten was the first installment of a total of 31 being asked for.
The council balked at ten and almost collapsed at the thought of 31, sending the request to committee and starting off a wide circle of questions and doubts about whether or not these proposed cell antennas are harmful to the health of residents, and whether or not they are needed, much less wanted.
T-Mobile is attempting to improve its wireless network to make communications more seamless and quicker, which are the demands of the residents of this city as well as those who come into this city everyday to use their cell-phones and electronic devices.
One councilor asked how many T-Mobile customers there are in Everett.
Another councilor wondered where the need for modern technology stops as if to say: enough antenna are enough.
The questions are ludicrous, especially if Everett wishes to maintain an informed population and a huge workforce that comes into the city everyday expecting electronic connectivity with their cell phones.
The health risks of the antennas being sought by T-Mobile are almost non-existent. The Everett city council needn’t busy itself with
medical and health investigations of antennas that won’t hurt a fly or even a moth.
In this instance, the city council needs to permit the T-Mobile antennas and to create as well a committee, like there is in the city of Boston, to expedite electronic needs of companies who make it possible for our city to remain connected with the electronic world.
Resisting this electronic technology on the pretense they are dangerous is foolish and backward.
If this city is to maintain a modern posture with itself and the outside world, the overriding need for connectivity should outweigh superstitious and fallacious public expressions by our government that cell phones are causing people to die or to contract cancer.
Nearly 95% of the people living in this city carry cell phones and use computers and expect connectivity at its best.
That won’t happen with the city council denying or delaying T-Mobile, Comcast, or AT&T among many others who need antennas on poles here to spread information expeditiously.
Does anyone really care about a three foot antenna that is noiseless being installed at the top of a 30 foot telephone pole?