Election 2023: Republican Candidates for First Selectman Debate West School Cell Tower Plan [UPDATED]

[Note: This article has been updated with a comment from St. Luke’s School.]

Bringing back a proposal to erect a cell tower behind West School when it was “roundly criticized by residents and parents” more than five years ago is “an unbelievably bad waste of time, money and effort,” according to one Republican candidate for New Canaan’s highest elected office.

There are alternative technologies such as satellite and distributed antenna systems or “DAS,” and public safety has already been addressed because all elementary schools have antenna systems, Dionna Carlson said during a GOP debate last week.

“So if there’s an emergency at West School or in the West School area, they can connect to our emergency service providers,” Carlson said at the Republican Town Committee’s July 18 debate, held at the Carriage Barn Arts Center.

“I was on the Board of Education when those antennas were put up and redone,” she continued. “So I am not as concerned from a safety standpoint. But we do need to find solutions because more people are working from home and they need access to their wireless services. But it needs to be a transparent process. You can’t—as I said in my opening statement—you cannot have a proposal that’s vetted behind closed doors and is going to be impacting residents and expect it to be accepted by this community. You have to bring it forward, let everybody look at what’s happening, and comment on it in the daylight.”

Cell service was one of the major topics addressed by Carlson, incumbent First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Kimberly Norton during an hour-long debate moderated by RTC Chair Chris Wilson. Other topics included affordable housing, dysfunction on the Board of Selectmen and bipartisanism. A video of the debate was posted Thursday to YouTube, as well as a video of the debate among GOP hopefuls seeking party backing for Town Council bids at the July 25 Republican Caucus. A third debate, among Republican candidates for the Board of Education was not recorded, according to the RTC. (There are four candidates for three four-year seats on the Board of Ed currently held by the GOP—Tia Whinery, Matt Wexler, Lara Kelly and Matthew Campbell.)

Moynihan in addressing cell service said that during his three terms in office a Soundview Lane resident had a cell tower built on private property “which now his neighbors are accepting.”

“St. Luke’s School is happy that it’s there,” Moynihan said. “It’s 250 feet from the school.” 

Asked for a comment in response to Moynihan’s assertion, St. Luke’s Associate Head of School & Chief Financial Officer Julia Gabriele issued the following statement: “This is the first we are hearing of this unfounded comment. Nobody representing St. Luke’s has made statements about the cell tower since its installation. The tower was installed after St. Luke’s publicly expressed concerns and without our consent.”

Moynihan continued at the debate, “I worked hard to get a public safety cell tower in the northwest corner of town because in that corner of town, our police and firemen, when they step out of their vehicle, they don’t have radio service. We have a temporary antenna and we need to find a permanent solution. So I worked hard on that to get that approved. And it was approved last December to have that tower.”

He added that he asked Verizon, a carrier who has expressed support for erecting a cell tower behind West School, to move it back as far as possible from the school itself, to 900 feet.

“If people don’t understand, there’s no health risk—not 900 feet from the school—we’re never going to solve the problem in New Canaan,” Moynihan said. “And by the way, AT&T and Verizon each want to spend $500,000 in addition to the $1.5 million [from] Homeland Towers to build a tower in the middle of the woods. They don’t invest that money if they don’t think they need it. The reality is macro sites are still the backbone of cell service in America. All the macro sites are going to 5G antennas. We need to solve this problem. And people have to understand there is no health risk whatsoever with a cell tower at 900 feet from a school. And you’re in the middle of the woods where no one can see the tower.”

Moynihan concluded, “I’m very surprised people think this is a problem. We have to get our heads around this because if there’s no other location on the west side of town, we will never solve the problem and we will be an inferior town compared to our neighbors.”

In December 2017, after winning the first selectman race by 33 votes, Moynihan said that he wished to dissolve the Utilities Commission while redistributing some of its responsibilities—such as cell coverage, natural gas and solar energy. Tom Tesluk, then-chair of the Utilities Commission, had resigned the day after Moynihan narrowly defeated Kit Devereaux. And though Devereaux, who went on to serve as a selectman, argued in favor of preserving the Commission, the volunteer body’s last meeting agenda had been posted in December 2018. 

The town’s effort to erect the cell tower behind West School emerged one year ago and, despite a push from Homeland Towers, met with enough resistance from Selectman Nick Williams and other New Canaan residents that it was stalled while opponents pushed for the Utilities Commission to be reactivated—ostensibly to remove the job of improving cell coverage from the first selectman alone. Ultimately, New Canaan’s legislative body, the Town Council, decided to update the local ordinance regarding the Utilities Commission in order for it to re-activate, which it has.

Both Carlson and Norton have called for more transparency out of the first selectman’s office. 

Addressing Moynihan’s position, Norton said during the debate that “there’s no definitive evidence that cell service is safe.”

“And I’m the only candidate that said since day one of my announcement back in May that I will not put a cell tower on any school property, any public park, public land, and I won’t go to your neighbor and ask to put up a cell tower,” Norton said. “Cell towers are dinosaur technology. There’s new technology coming out, or is out now.”

She added that the data Moynihan and Homeland Towers have used to argue in favor of erecting the West School cell tower is from 2017.

“That is very old,” Norton said. “Technology changes every three months, every day. So to base a decision that’s upsetting residents on something from 2017, frankly, is unethical. And I really think that it’s our responsibility to vet research and technology, ask the right questions. And I fought to reinstate the Utilities Commission. And I also fought to put more residents on the Utilities Commission. We have a NASA scientist that’s on that Commission. The more residents with more diverse backgrounds, more research, understanding, the greater and better solution we’re going to get for New Canaan. So, I just want to reiterate that I think it’s a false dichotomy to say ‘public safety or cell tower.’ That’s not what our choice is. We have a lot of other choices in the middle and I think that we can find that balance for New Canaan.”

During a rebuttal period on the topic, Moynihan called improved cell service “the most important issue we have in terms of solving a safety issue in New Canaan.”

“West School is not a safe school without cell service around it,” he said. “The only reason teachers and people can make a cell phone call is because of the Wi Fi in the building. I defy anybody to tell me the difference between a WiFi signal in the, in the classroom and a cell tower 900 feet away. There is no difference.”

He added, “In France, they don’t allow WiFi in elementary schools.” (In fact, France about five years ago banned WiFi in kindergartens and childcare centers with kids 5-and-under, not elementary schools.)

Moynihan continued, “Let’s take the WiFi out of the elementary school, there will be no cell service around West School. I told the chief of police, I told the superintendent, without cell service at West School, we have a vulnerable school and we need cell service around that school.”

Norton responded that she was “very upset to hear that statement because I think it’s fear mongering.”

“Parents send their children to school and they should be 100% comfortable that their children are safe,” Norton said. “The fire and the police and the EMS have downloaded floor plans of the schools and can respond in all different ways, so I don’t agree with that. But it’s not just about schools. There’s cell towers that were proposed in Irwin Park. There’s a cell tower next to a family with four children up on Ponus Ridge. I don’t think those people are very happy. Why should we be doing that to people when there’s other solutions? So it’s our responsibility as leaders, and it will be my goal, the responsibility as first selectman, to find a solution that doesn’t pit neighbor against neighbor, that does not upset parents, and does not upset residents who live near the proposed tower.”

Carlson during the rebuttal said that those with an iPhone 14 “have access to a satellite.”

“So in an emergency, it will go directly to a satellite to place that call,” she said. “I think we need to get out of the ‘emergency’ situation because I think technology is progressing to the point where these public safety issues are being addressed. This is an emotional issue. I don’t think you’re ever going to get a bunch of parents of 5- to 8-year-olds getting comfortable with a cell tower. Right now, the American Cancer Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics has an ‘undefined’ risk. And so until that goes away, you’re not going to get parents comfortable with it. So why are we wasting everyone’s time?”