While there is a need for a permanent solution for a tower on Massachusetts-based Chappaquiddick Island, for now the residents are getting a temporary one. Having good cellular and data service is keenly important to Chappaquiddick, it is a section of Martha’s Vineyard where the well-heeled have sought out the glow of the summer’s sun since Ulysses S. Grant visited his friend’s vacation home in 1874. Among the celebrity crowd known to stay there these days are the Kennedy family, the Obamas, the Clintons, Oprah Winfrey, Hollywood’s Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal and dozens other of the ilk. Even comedian John Belushi is buried there, though no cell plan is necessary in his case.
Inside Towers reported last month that AT&T was going to use an existing tower owned by Bob Fynbo, a local who owns a wireless service on the island, but Vineyard Gazette reports that the equipment needed is too heavy for Fynbo’s tower. Instead, the temporary unipole tower is planned at 104 feet and 24 inches in diameter, and it can be removed once the island decides on a permanent solution for the spotty cell service.
Ferry owner Peter Wells told selectmen this week that he would like to use half of the Memorial Wharf parking lot to transport the temporary tower, which will be driven in via smaller cargo trucks. The Gazette reported Well told selectmen the parking lot will be used as a staging area for the transfer, which should start in late March/early April.
AT&T hopes to have the temporary solution up by the heavy tourist holiday of Memorial Day weekend, as long as it receives the special permit needed for the tower at the Edgartown planning board meeting March 15.
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