Residents rally to oppose Verizon towers in Belmar – Star News Group

BELMAR — More than 200 people gathered at Taylor Pavilion Monday evening to determine how to best combine their efforts as a united force against the impending Verizon 5G cell tower installation project set for Ocean Avenue.

The meeting was organized by Caitlin Donovan, a Belmar resident who originated a Change.org petition and Facebook group “Belmar Against 5G Towers” following an April 25 borough council discussion of the project. Present Monday night were councilwomen Jodi Kinney and Maria Rondinaro, both offering to be liaison’s for the cell opponents.

Commissioner Director Thomas Arnone and county counsel Michael Fitzgerald represented Monmouth County at the meeting.

“Belmar [has] called for some assistance and help. Fortunately enough, Monmouth County does have a stake in this, so we are going to dive in there and I will give whatever legal resource, engineering resource, all those resources,” Mr. Arnone told residents.

At the meeting, Mr. Arnone said that he guarantees those resources will be approved.

The large crowd of concerned residents filled the pavilion at 7 p.m. They were asked to scan a QR code at the door to find and sign the online petition on their way in, if they hadn’t already done so. Participants were also given a meeting agenda and a “frequently asked questions” handout, which many utilized to also take notes on throughout the meeting.

All available seats were quickly filled and an overflow of participants stood to listen to a presentation from officials and the petition organizer, using media equipment provided by the Belmar Public Library.

“As a municipality, we’re still working, we’re trying to do everything we can do, but this is good that you residents are here because you all have a voice,” Councilwoman Kinney said. “That’s why we wanted you here, to be able to be the voice of what we don’t want Verizon to do.”

In 2018, the federal telecommunications act was amended to classify phone companies and cell towers as a public utility, which determined that cell phone companies can place communication poles as they see fit.

“They have made it very easy by moving Verizon to a utility,” Mr. Arnone said. “Utilities supersede our approval, whether we like it or not.”

The project was presented by Verizon during a Borough of Belmar council meeting via Zoom in August 2020, during the pandemic, and was met with resistance, Councilwoman Kinney told the gathering. Despite this, Verizon filed an application in January 2021, seeking to begin the project.

“They were put off and put off until they sued the borough later that year,” Ms. Kinney said.

As it became clear that the Verizon litigation would succeed, the borough agreed to a settlement in August 2022 that would enable the project to proceed.

The borough council was able to receive some concessions from the settlement, Ms. Kinney said. These included lower heights for the poles from 50 to 35 feet and Verizon’s agreement to share them with other providers in the future. Efforts to reduce the number of poles or increase compensation to Belmar were rejected, however.

Mr. Arnone said that a 2016 agreement with Monmouth County authorized 5G devices to be added to existing poles, but did not not address new poles. Further, he said, Verizon has not sought county approval for the planned Belmar placements, which are actually on a county right of way. As such, both Mr. Arnone and Ms. Rondinaro said Verizon needs to seek approval from the county planning board.

Ms. Rondinaro told the residents that Borough Attorney George McGill has drafted a letter to Verizon on behalf of the mayor and council to make them aware of the public outcry the project has received. The request asked for Verizon to come back to the table, but Ms. Rondinaro predicted that the company’s response “will no doubt disappoint many residents of the borough, as well as the present administration.”

“You have our support,” Mr. Arnone told the gathering. “I don’t know how far that’s going to take you, but I promise you this. We will fight the fight side by side with Belmar.”