SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2010$1.50

WWW.GREENWICHTIME.COM

SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1877

Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

Advice ..................................... PULSE

BUSINESS ..................................C1

CLASSIFIED ...............................D1

Datebook ..................................... A15

Crossword ............................... PULSE

Lottery ........................................... B6

Editorial Page............................... A10

Movie Listings ......................... PULSE

Nation & World ............................... A9

Obituaries ...................................... A8

SPORTS .....................................B1

Weather ....................................... A12 COPYRIGHT 2010, SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT NEWSPAPERS INC.

VOL. LXXIII NO. 43, 5 SECTIONS

PARTLY CLOUDY

HIGH

27LOW

18

IndexWeather

15

TIMOTHY GUZDA/STAFF GRAPHIC

As residents cry foul, whose backyard will end up with a tower?

MONTGOMERY PINETUM, Cos Cob

MORE INSIDE: You probably know where some cell towers and antennas are around town, but do you know where they all are? Find out on Page A6.

54 Bible St., Cos Cob

328 Palmer Hill Road, North Mianus

AQUARION WATER CO. FACILITY, 455 Valley Road, Cos Cob

ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA CHURCH, 4 Riverside Ave., Riverside

TOUGH CELL

129 Bible St., Cos CobCOS COB ARCHERS,205 Bible St., Cos Cob

By Frank MacEachernSTAFF WRITER

When Karen Sadik-Kahn heard that a 157-foot cell phone tower could rise among the trees in the Montgomery Pinetum in the heart of Greenwich, her reaction — along with fellow supporters of the nature preserve — was swift.

“We are totally opposed to that. There should not be any

cell tower, or other develop-ment, in the Pinetum,” said Sadik-Kahn, who is president of the Garden Education Cen-ter, located on Bible Street in the 91-acre Pinetum.

The Pinetum land was do-nated to the town in the mid-1950s on the condition that it not be developed.

Cell towers, occasionally a

All of the above sites have been proposed as locations for a new T-Mobile cell tower.

Captain positions close to being filled

By Debra FriedmanSTAFF WRITER

The town is on its way to filling the vacant command staff ranks of the po-lice department after the deadline to apply to four open captain positions ex-pired earlier this week.

Those interested in the position met with the first selectman Tuesday to go over the two-pronged pro-cess that will be in place to choose four officers to be promoted to captain.

Although some more senior lieutenants were initially upset that the vacant positions were going to be open to all lieutenants, the president of the police union said there is an understanding between the rank and file now as things proceed.

“The first selectman was very forthcoming with everyone,” said James Bonney, president of the Silver Shield Associa-tion. “He was clear and concise. He had a process and if we had done this in years past, we wouldn’t have had any lawsuits.”

While the exact number of appli-cants was unavailable Friday, officials anticipated all 13 lieutenants applying to the position. The applicants will then be screened by an outside panel of for-mer police chiefs hired by the town through a consulting firm. The first round of interviewing will take place on Feb. 24, officials said.

Town resents paying taxes

By Neil VigdorSTAFF WRITER

If Greenwich had a town song, “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” would be in the running.

For every $142 local residents pay out in state income tax, Greenwich gets about $1 back in municipal aid annually, according to a new study by the South Western Regional Planning Agency that has town officials once again saying that they are stuck in a one-way relationship.

“When the hard-working people of southwestern Connecticut and other pockets of Connecticut end up subsidiz-ing large bureaucracies that do not demonstrate much accountability and tend to grow at unsustainable rates, then you’re going to have, at some point, a breakdown in the system,” said state Sen. L. Scott Frantz, R-36th District, which includes Greenwich and parts of Stamford and New Canaan.

“As tax rates go up to the point where people realize that they are paying much more than their fair share, they tend to leave the state.”

Greenwich provided the state with $758 million, or just over 14 percent, of its income tax revenue in 2007, the most recent year that figures were available to the eight-municipality planning consortium.

Scouts brave cold for annual competitionBy Lisa Chamoff

STAFF WRITER

Ben Wurst pulled off his gloves and, as the temperature edged its way past 10 degrees, looped a thin rope around three long, wooden rods.

In just a few minutes the 13-year-old had successfully demon-strated lashing, using a rope to secure items together, creating a tripod that could be used over the campfire roaring nearby. It was one of the many skills that eight Greenwich Boy Scout troops practiced Saturday at the annual Klondike Derby, a winter skills and camping event held at the Ernest Thompson Seton Reser-vation, a 249-acre camp off Riv-ersville Road.

“I’m going to be getting my gloves back on,” insisted Ben, his hands turning red from the cold.

The event lived up to its frosty-sounding name. It was also one of the few Klondike Derbies with

some snow on the ground, which made the main event, the Iditar-od, a bit easier. For the activity, the Scouts built their own wood-en sleds, load them up with gear and race around the lake on the property.

“Usually, we don’t have snow,” said J.P. Hadley, a 14-year-old from Troop 9. “It makes it easier because it’s easier to pull the sled over the snow.”

The event is named for the Klondike gold rush along the Klondike River in Yukon, Cana-da, in the 1890s, simulating the harsh conditions, and has been held by Boy Scout troops across the country for decades.

“The temperature is sort of part of the experience,” said J.P., a student at Brunswick School.

“It adds to the competition,” said 13-year-old Zach James of Troop 35. “You’re battling the ele-ments and the other team.”

Cos Cob Troop 10 from front, Kohtaro Tanaka, Ryan Olesen, R.J. Lombardi and James Harnett fight a steep incline along the geo tracking test route during the annual Klondike Derby, Greenwich Boy Scouts’ winter skills and camping event at the Ernest Thompson Seton Reservation on Riversville Road Saturday morning. Guided by a map and compass, each troop pulls a dog sled loaded with equipment through the woods stopping at different activity stations aimed at further honing their scouting skills.

KEELIN DALY/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

See CELL on A6

RIDBERG

TESEI

See CAPTAIN on A6

Study fi nds Greenwich residents aren’t getting their money’s worth

See SCOUTS on A7

See RESIDENTS on A7

Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

controversial issue in Green-wich when carriers seek to expand their networks in town, has leapt to the fore-front of public debate once again as residents have ral-lied against several proposed sites for a planned T-Mobile tower.

T-Mobile’s initial plan to erect a tower in the form of an 80-foot flagpole on Palmer Hill Road near North Mianus School angered parents who believe the health of their children would be at risk.

They cited studies of a higher risk of cancer and other health issues due to the electromagnetic radiation from cell towers.

Additionally, there were objections to the cell tower’s height, which would rise far above the approximately 40-foot-high tree line.

Residents packed the Town Hall Meeting Room last June as the proposal was being discussed by the Plan-ning and Zoning Commission to voice their objections.

They also organized a campaign against the plan, which led to town officials huddling with T-Mobile rep-resentatives throughout the summer to see if there might be other options.

Town officials suggested the wireless carrier look at six sites: St. Catherine of Siena Church, 4 Riverside Ave.; the E. Gaynor Brennan Public Golf Course, 451 Still-water Road, Stamford, near the Greenwich town line; town-owned property at 54 Bible St. in Cos Cob; the Aquarion Water Co. facility on Valley Road in Cos Cob; 129 Bible St. in the Montgom-ery Pinetum and a second site in the Pinetum in the area behind the Garden Edu-cation Center.

TOWN FAVORS 2 COS COB SITES

Of those sites, 129 Bible St. is the favored option, First Selectman Peter Tesei said.

“I think that is the one that is most viable and that I

am willing to consider in lieu of having it go next to a school,” he said.

Should the town enter into an agreement with T-Mobile for the Bible Street site, the 157-foot cell tower would be located on 5,625 square feet of town property that it would lease for 10 years with the option to renew for an additional 20 years in two segments. The wireless carrier would re-quire an additional 450 square feet at the site for elec-trical equipment.

The town would receive $2,500 in monthly rent that would increase annually by 3 percent, as well as 20 percent of any income generated by T-Mobile’s subleasing of space on the tower to other carriers.

However, Tesei referred to another site that borders the Pinetum as a possible solu-tion — land owned by the Cos Cob Archers at 205 Bible St.

Founded in 1954, the club owns a 23-acre site on which archery enthusiasts enjoy their sport.

Tesei said the archers ap-proached the town about pos-sibly building a tower on their site.

“They were reading about it in the newspaper,” he said. “They approached Select-man David Theis and said they were interested and he mentioned that to me.”

Tesei said it could mean additional cash for the club.

“Clearly if they determine it is in their interests as an organization to earn revenue to support the payment of taxes and keep the land un-developed, I think it would be a tremendous benefit,” he said.

When asked if he prefers the archers site, Tesei said: “If it was the Cos Cob Ar-chers site instead of 129 Bible St., the answer is yes.”

The Cos Cob Archers, meanwhile, are staying quiet on the issue.

Jeff Stempian, the club’s president, declined to com-ment and instead referred to

a brief release the archers is-sued two weeks ago.

In it, the archers said that if public opposition to other

locations is too strong, “then placement in a private, wood-ed location might be more palatable.”

LACK OF LOCAL CONTROL IRKS

RESIDENTSFred Camillo, who repre-

sents Cos Cob and North Mi-anus in the state Legislature, said his constituents believe they are shut out of the tower approval process.

“The people acknowledge the fact there has to be sites provided for these cell tow-ers, but there is incredible frustration over the fact there is no local control,” he said. “It ties our hands in what we can do.”

The Planning and Zoning Commission can only make recommendations; it cannot reject a cell tower, a power that resides with the New Britain-based Connecticut Siting Council.

The federal Telecommu-nications Act of 1996 pro-hibits any state or local agency from regulating tele-communications towers on the basis of the environ-mental effects of radio fre-quency emissions.

A consultant who works with property owners on

placing cell towers on their land or buildings said local control would see far fewer towers dotting the landscape. And with that, more cell phone users “dropping” or losing their calls.

“If local control was pro-vided, half of the towers in the United States would not exist,” said Ken Schmidt, president of Fort Myers, Fla.-based Steel In The Air. “You would have everybody in the world having different opin-ions on it.”

Schmidt estimates there could be as many as 150,000 to 175,000 cell towers in the U.S.

Camillo acknowledged that T-Mobile has worked with local officials in search-ing for another site instead of pushing ahead with its ini-tial choice of 328 Palmer Hill Road.

“They could have gone up to the siting council, but they haven’t,” he said. “All the parties are working in good faith.”

Through all the contro-versy, T-Mobile is keeping a low public profile.

Jane Builder, senior man-ager of external affairs for T-Mobile, issued an e-mail statement to Greenwich Time.

She said the carrier is looking at alternative sites in town and is “eager to move forward on a proposal as soon as possible,” but didn’t give a time frame.

ODDS AGAINST TOWER OPPONENTS

In a response to a ques-tion from the audience about cell towers two weeks ago at the Riverside Association’s annual meeting, Camillo said the odds were stacked against defeating a cell tower propos-al at the siting council.

Ninety-six percent of cell tower applications are ap-proved, he said. If the coun-cil turns down applications, “the cell companies go to court and then they win.”

But Peter Berg, a mem-ber of the Representative

Town Meeting for District 8/Cos Cob, challenged that statistic.

“That statistic has been going around, but you have to understand most cell tower applications don’t have any opposition to them (when they go to the siting coun-cil),” said Berg, whose dis-trict includes several of the proposed tower sites.

Berg believes that if T-Mo-bile chooses to present the 328 Palmer Hill Road option to the siting council, local residents had a very good chance of overturning it be-cause of the arguments they have already marshalled against the proposal.

He also noted that Green-wich resident and state At-torney General Richard Blumenthal has also urged T-Mobile to select another site instead of Palmer Hill Road.

On its Web site, the Siting Council lists 25 cellular sites in Greenwich, ranging from a 115-foot tower tucked in the woods behind the Round Hill Community Church at 395 Round Hill Road, to a 70-foot flagpole at 36 Ritch Ave.

T-MOBILE ALSO EYEING BYRAM

It’s not only some in Cos Cob and North Mianus who are leery of a cell tower, Byram residents and town officials are also opposed to a separate T-Mobile plan to erect an 80-foot pole at 44 Tal-bot Lane near Interstate 95’s Exit 2.

Tesei, along with senior zoning officials, met with T-Mobile representatives this past week. He said they urged the company to look for an-other location.

“We told them this is not an acceptable site. There is too much (population) densi-ty,” he said. Also, the town is concerned that the tower’s location sits on top of some underground infrastructure. Placing the tower there could make it difficult to ac-cess the sewer system, he said.

In the application T-Mo-bile filed with the town’s Planning and Zoning Com-mission on Jan. 19, it said the site, a 14,000-square-foot property that includes a sin-gle-family home, would im-prove coverage in that sec-tion of town as well as along I-95.

It investigated six other sites: 9 Tingue St.; 38 Gold St.; 34, 104 and 124 Ritch Ave.; and 10 Hamilton St. AT&T has a flag pole that it uses as a cell tower at 34 Ritch Ave. T-Mobile rejected each loca-tion for a variety of reasons.

TOWER OPPONENTS CITE ALTERNATIVES

Berg floated another op-tion for wireless carriers to consider — the Distributed Antenna System (DAS).

Instead of a tower loom-ing over a residential area, DAS is a system in which an-tennas are placed on tele-phone poles or other struc-tures that may only be 30 or 40 feet off the ground. These “nodes,” as they are referred to in the industry, emit less power and cover a smaller area.

Noting that the city of Yonkers, N.Y., installed a DAS system last year, Berg suggested it could be consid-ered for Greenwich.

“It sounds like a solution here,” he said. “The town has to somehow bring in this other technology.”

But Schmidt, the consul-tant on cell tower leasing, said it is not as clear cut as that.

“It costs substantially more to deploy DAS than building a tower; it’s about three to four times as expen-sive,” he said.

Schmidt said that it would take about three or four nodes to cover the same area as a cell tower that may be 100 feet tall with antennas sprouting out of it.

Staff Writer Frank MacEach-ern can be reached at frank.maceachern@scni.com or 203-625-4434.

A6 GREENWICH TIME SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2010

LOCATION TYPE HEIGHT USERS1. 1 American Lane rooftop 60’ Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T2. 1 Fawcett Place rooftop 60’8” AT&T3. 1 Greenwich Plaza — Arch Street rooftop 51’-100’ T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint4. 1081 North St./Banksville monopole 175’ Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T5. 1111 E. Putnum Ave. rooftop 42’ T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon6. 1114 E. Putnum Ave. rooftop 73’6” AT&T7. 20 Bowman Drive water Tank 114’ Verizon8. 24 Butternut Hollow Road water Tank 130’ T-Mobile 9. 36 Ritch Ave. flagpole 70’ AT&T10. 363 Riversville Road monopole 150’ AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile11. 395 Round Hill Road-tower A monopole/stick 115’ Verizon, AT&T12. 395 Round Hill Road-tower B monopole/stick 115’ Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint13. 411 W. Putnam Ave. rooftop 60’ AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile14. 5 Perryridge Road monopole 164’ Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, 15. 50 E. Putnum Ave. rooftop 202’11”-204’ Sprint, AT&T 16. 606 Riversville Road church spire 85’2” Sprint, Verizon17. 9 Sound Shore Drive power mount 133’ Sprint, Verizon18. Bruce Mem Golf Course/King St self-supporting lattice 100’ Verizon19. Butternut Hollow Road self-supporting lattice 180’ Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile20. DeKraft Road watertank n/a T-Mobile21. Off Station Drive monopole 140’ T-Mobile22. Sound Beach Avenue (CL&P #1255) power mount 95’ AT&T23. Sound Shore Drive power mount 99’ AT&T, Sprint24. Sound View Road power mount 99’ T-Mobile25. Valley Road water tank 47’7” SNET

Existing cell towers, antennas in Greenwich

1

2 3

4

5 67

8

9

10

1112

13

1415

16

17

18

19

20

2223

24

25

21

SOURCE: CONNECTICUT SITING COUNCIL

TIMOTHY GUZDA/STAFF GRAPHIC

BYRAM PARK

Henry Street

STAFF GRAPHIC

Hamilton Avenue

BYRAM ROAD

Delavan Avenue

Mead Avenue

T-Mobile proposes new cell tower site in Byram

MONUMENT PARK

Byram Shore Street

Talbot Lane

Norias Road

2

Continued from A1

Cell towers not desired by town residents

“It will be an independent assessment center,” said First Selectman Peter Tesei. “The individuals will have no rela-tionship to the entity in which they are being asked to ac-cess.”

While in the past, the town had potential candi-dates take a test and go through role play in order to gain a ranking, Tesei said this process will mostly rely on interviews and there will be no list or ranking of can-didates.

“The (panel) will select the names of eight candi-dates rated the most highly in alphabetical order,” Tesei said. “We have not asked for any numeric scoring.”

The eight candidates who move forward will then be interviewed by Police Chief David Ridberg and Tesei. Those interviews will deter-mine which officers will be promoted to captain.

“Each of those inter-viewed will be informed of the outcome, but will be asked to keep it confidential until the formal announce-ment is made,” Tesei said.

The first selectman said the bulk of the interviews will be about officers’ career history, police experience and answers to how they would deal with certain hy-pothetical situations.

Tesei said he thought it was beneficial to have a group of “disinterested par-

ties” narrow the initial pool of candidates.

Bonney said he felt the of-ficers who planned on apply-ing to the position felt the process was fair, although some may still have some frustrations with the past few years in which they were held back from advancing in their careers.

Three years ago, five cur-rent lieutenants were sched-uled to take a promotional test to an open captain’s spot, but an injunction stemming

from a now resolved lawsuit froze the position. The test was never officially canceled, leading some to believe they would be able to take the test before other, more junior lieu-tenants became applicable.

“Some feel slighted and I understand why,” said Bon-ney. “But I think they accept the process now.”

The injunction came from a lawsuit filed by Lt. Gary Ho-nulik, who sued the town after claiming he was unfairly passed over for a promotion to

captain in 2003. Honulik scored the highest on a promotion exam, but was passed over once a last-minute interview was implemented. Although he won a state Superior Court trial, the state Supreme Court overruled the decision in 2009, saying the town had the right to promote whomever they wanted. The injunction left the police department without a full command staff for near-ly three years.

Just to be extra clear this time around, however, Tesei said he had the human re-sources department declassi-fy the captain’s position and informed the officers that the promotions will not be done based on numerical rankings.

Tesei said he felt the ini-

tial frustration from some of the lieutenants had to do with not being told that the frozen captain’s test was not going forward.

“I think some of their frus-tration was that they would have appreciated a notifica-tion,” said Tesei.

“I was satisfied with the outcome of the meeting and the tone and tenor. It was a good step toward bringing ev-eryone together and to also address some of the short-comings and uncertainties as it went forward.”

Tesei said he anticipates to interview the second round of candidates on March 15 and 16, with the hopes of an-nouncing the new captains on March 18.

Captain positions close to being filled by townContinued from A1

FROM PAGE A1

Tesei said he anticipates to interview the second round of candidates on March 15 and

16, with the hopes of announcing the new captains on March 18.