Verizon Wireless has proposed a cell phone tower in an unlikely place—The Springdale Cemetery. Perhaps not surprisingly is that Katie Groark of Insite RE Inc., said in her presentation to the cemetery’s management is that the area surrounding the cemetery is a weak signal area. Verizon wants to pay $1,500 a month to put a 110-foot tower on a 50-foot by 50-foot section of land, the Journal Star reports.
The prospective land site would be behind the office and maintenance area currently used to store old headstones and monuments, and it would be protected by a fence. Additionally, it must be “appropriate to the look of other structures in the cemetery.” The cemetery is historic, therefore the Peoria Historic Preservation Commission would have to sign off on the site of the pole—which Verizon is proposing to look like a flagpole.
Questions remain about what the fencing material would look like, along with who would take care of the flag that would sit atop the pole. Another site has been proposed near the mausoleum, but Groark has been asked to provide the board with more information on both sites and what the pole would look like before making a decision.
Over in Elmhurst, Mount Emblem Cemetery and the city council members have reached an agreement on their new 100-foot tower brought to the cemetery by T-Mobile. The council voted 9-2 on the monopine that will be designed to look like a pine tree, according to the Chicago Tribune. Neighbors were concerned that the southwest corner of the cemetery, east of the end of Wrightwood Avenue, posed safety and flooding risks, however, barring weather and permits, construction will be begin before the end of 2015.
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