A new 185-foot tower to house emergency communications and personal wireless equipment, a component of East Hampton Town’s long effort to upgrade its emergency communications infrastructure, has been installed on the Camp Blue Bay property in Springs.
The tower’s installation was completed last week, Councilman David Lys told The Star. Emergency communications and four personal wireless carriers are expected to house equipment on the tower. Eddie Schnell, the town’s emergency communications director, said the goal is for the equipment to be installed and operational by next spring.
The installation at the 170-acre Camp Blue Bay, which is owned by the Girl Scouts of Nassau County, was a step forward in the process to upgrade both emergency and personal wireless communication service in the town. The planning board approved the tower in November.
The town board had initially settled on a 6.9-acre wooded area in Springs as the most suitable location for the 185-foot pole, but outcry from surrounding property owners led to a resumption of discussions with the Girl Scouts, which had been abandoned.
When personal wireless equipment has been installed, the new tower will increase coverage but will not eliminate coverage gaps in Springs, Eric Schantz, who was then the assistant planning director, said in October (he has since been appointed director of housing and community development).
More than three in four respondents to a wireless infrastructure poll conducted in August 2021 described network coverage where they live as poor or nonexistent. A little more than half of the 1,601 respondents live in Springs