Amy Murphy Carroll

Cell Coverage: Town Approves Contract for Updated ‘Street Test’

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Town officials on Tuesday approved a contract with a Seattle-based company for a long-awaited “street test” to understand cellular coverage in New Canaan. The Board of Selectmen voted 3-0 at its regular meeting to approve the $32,500 contract with Ookla. The vendor is the Utilities Commission’s preferred option for the test, the first step in obtaining clean, up-to-date, real-time data before decisions are made on the best ways to address coverage gaps. Commission member Christa Kenin, who presented to the selectmen with Chair Rich Townsend, said the appointed body was attracted to Ookla because “they are able to truly mimic the consumer experience.”

“Other vendors that came forward to us, if you could imagine—I’m oversimplifying it— they would just have an antenna on their car and drive around, but that is just catching a signal,” Kenin said at the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

She continued: “What Ookla does is it is able to measure, is there a signal so can you initiate a call? And also voice and data will be tested in this.

Board of Selectmen

Selectmen Corbet, Williams Nix Cell-Related Contracts as Utilities Commission Is Appointed

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After residents voiced concerns, the Board of Selectmen decided Tuesday to forgo approval of two contracts related to a widely discussed proposal to erect a cell tower in the woods behind West School. Reiterating what citizens have been saying for months regarding plans to study cell coverage in New Canaan and to survey residents about their service, Selectman Kathleen Corbet said during the Board’s regular meeting that a newly appointed Utilities Commission should decide which companies will help the town. “I’m not going to approve this because I really want to see the Utilities Commission be able to step up and decide what the community survey is going to look like and how the coverage analysis is going to be done,” Corbet said during the selectmen’s meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. Selectman Nick Williams, long wary of First Selectman Kevin Moynihan’s push for the town’s selected partner in improving cell service, Homeland Towers, to pursue the West School option, said he would prefer to “table” the two contracts—with V-Comm Telecommunications Engineering (coverage) and Great Blue Research, Inc. (survey)—indefinitely. 

Yet Corbet said she wanted to discuss the items first, and in doing so she cited comments from the public. 

During a public comments section at the top of the meeting, New Canaan resident Barbara Wills said she was excited about the prospect of appointing members of a Utilities Commission (see below). “And I would respectfully like to request that no actions about cell service or the evaluation of it be taken until the Utilities Commission is seated,” Wills said.

Cristina A. Ross

West School Cell Tower: Town Council Calls for ‘Active’ Utilities Commission

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In a blow to the town’s highest elected official, New Canaan’s legislative body asserted last week that the town needs an active volunteer commission that advises on utilities. Weeks into his first term in 2017, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said that he wished to dissolve the Utilities Commission while tackling cell coverage in New Canaan himself. 

Since then, Moynihan has brought no one forward to populate the six-person commission, which is down to three members—not enough to qualify as a quorum—and hasn’t posted a meeting agenda in four years. 

This summer, after it became known that Moynihan was planning to erect a cell tower behind West School, fellow members of the Board of Selectmen pushed back. In October, when Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams called for the reinstitution of the Utilities Commission, Moynihan said he didn’t “see the need” for it. 

Even so, Corbet and Williams this month pushed again for a reactivated Utilities Commission. 

And last week, the Town Council voted unanimously during an informal straw poll that New Canaan needs an active Utilities Commission and that the Council will do whatever is necessary to flesh that out, including taking input from the Board of Selectmen. “Right now, as we have a very active first selectman—he is having the thought process and the meetings that are not public meetings,” Councilman Cristina A. Ross said during the elected body’s Dec. 14 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.

Government

‘It Would Encompass All Cellphone Towers’: Selectmen Williams, Corbet Push Again for Reinstitution of Utilities Commission

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Saying the town should avail itself of the vast expertise among local residents, especially in light of a divisive proposal to erect a cell tower behind West School, Selectman Nick Williams on Tuesday pushed for the reinstitution of a volunteer body that focuses on utilities. 

The Town Code calls for the establishment of a six-member Utilities Commission, Williams noted during a regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen. Under Section 12-4, the Utilities Commission “is created for the purpose of monitoring the activities and operations of public and private utilities servicing the residents and businesses of New Canaan to ensure that the needs of residences and businesses located in New Canaan are adequately met and that New Canaan’s consumers’ interests are represented before any applicable commission or agency having jurisdiction over the utility in question.”

While First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said that the mission is outdated and can only be updated by the Town Council, Williams said it’s “pretty broad.”

“It would encompass cell phone towers, which I am increasingly coming to the belief that these are antiquated things—150-foot-tall monopoles or whatever you call it—for my purposes seem outdated,” Williams said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. He added, “To be clear, I’m not coming out against the West School tower. What I’m coming out for is to reconstitute the Utilities Commission.”

“What is your opposition to having an independent Utilities Commission, populated by very bright people in town?” Williams said. “We’ve got 20,000 people in this town, surely—in fact, I know two or three by name who have come to me and said, ‘I would like to be part of a Utilities Commission.’ And certainly if you look at the statute, it would encompass cellphone and tower usage.

Government

Selectmen Williams, Corbet Call for Reinstitution of New Canaan Utilities Commission

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Nearly five years after New Canaan’s highest elected official did away with the municipal Utilities Commission by declining to appoint new members, some town officials are calling for its reinstitution. 

In December 2017, one month after winning the first selectman race by 33 votes, Kevin 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 was posted in December 2018. 

During the Board of Selectmen’s Sept. 20 meeting, Selectman Nick Williams said, “We had talked about repurposing or getting back to a Utilities Commission at some point and I bring that up in the context of the cell phone towers because I think that’s an issue that a robust Utilities Commission could tackle and Lord knows in this town we’ve got experts all over the place that could help out with something like that.”

His comments came during a portion the meeting dedicated to general matters before the town. Moynihan responded that he had attended all meetings of the Utilities Commission for four years while serving on the Town Council “to bird dog cell service.”

This exchange followed:
Moynihan: And Tom Tesluk resigned the day after the election. Williams: So we just gave up?