POINT PLEASANT BEACH — The council is in the process of deciding on design standards for telecom infrastructure in the borough, after soliciting public input on the specs for possible future 5G small-cell towers, Mayor Doug Vitale told The Ocean Star Tuesday.
“For those of you on social media, I put out a couple of pictures of some design standards that the engineer sent in,” said the mayor at the Jan. 21 council meeting. “I’ve gotten some good responses — probably 60 to 70 people — and I was very pleased that there (were few people) engaging in, ‘Why do we need 5G?’ Everyone stuck to what I asked and gave their recommendations for the design.”
“This is important so that we can, again, be ahead of this, but be transparent to you guys, the public, to say that this is the route we’re taking,” he said.
The mayor told The Ocean Star that, while a majority of the respondents chose option A, the council has yet to decide definitively on a design for any 5G towers that would be erected in the borough.
“The public overwhelmingly selected one option,” he said. “We wrote up some design specs, that are pretty broad, to incorporate some final designs that we want to use, but we haven’t come up with a final decision yet as to what we’re going to do. The public preferred option A.”
Option A depicts a rendering of a white lamppost with a slightly thicker top part, where cell equipment would be housed. Two lights adorn the sides of the post toward the top.
Vitale explained at the meeting that this solicitation of recommendations from the public is part of an effort to preemptively mitigate the effects of future telecom development in the borough. He emphasized that, as of Jan. 21, there are no such efforts ongoing within Point Pleasant Beach.
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