AT&T is planning to expand its bandwidth in Bolinas to better serve customers but first needs to modify its lease with the Bolinas Fire Protection District. While the local FD is dubious of allowing a much stronger signal at the station, they weigh it against how much the carrier pays for the site. The lease generated $126,000 for the district during the fiscal year and grows by six percent each year, according to Chief Tyrrell-Brown.
“If the cell sites were to ever go away, the community would have to have a serious discussion of how to make up the budget,” he added.
The Point Reyes Light reported the lease stipulates that RF wave levels would not exceed 10 percent of a baseline established in 2015, which is under three percent of the total FCC’s limit; AT&T wants to increase levels to 18.4 percent.
The proposal recommends removing and replacing nine-panel antennas and six remote radio units, plus installing nine, new remote radio units. Regarding the RF emissions, the lease stipulates that AT&T must dispatch a technician up to four times a year, when the board requests it, in order to monitor the RF wave levels in real time. The goal, according to board president David Kimball, is to “provide some transparency for the people that are concerned.”
Kimball and Chief Tyrrell-Brown have been working with AT&T since May and haven’t heard any opposition to the RF waves by residents. Additionally, communities cannot deny the installation of cell phone towers based on a perceived health concern, per the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
July 30, 2018
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