SUSAN SILVERS ssilvers@ctpost.com
Article Last Updated: 01/08/2008 12:12:58 AM EST

TRUMBULL — Town Council members hoping to keep the "hold" buttons on plans for a cell phone antenna atop Town Hall came up short Monday.
Despite a series of questions, including the safety of the installation and the terms of the lease, proponents of the plan approved a contract with Sprint Nextel that calls for the installation of the equipment in the hall's cupola.

The antenna is the administration's answer to troublesome communications in which the backup equipment used by police, fire, EMS, and public works can fail. First Selectman Raymond G. Baldwin Jr. said there can be communication gaps from Town Hall south on Main Street and down Church Hill Road to Trumbull Center. The new antenna will help patch those gaps.

The five-year contract, with a possibility of three automatic renewals, succeeded by a vote of 11-6 despite efforts of several Republican council members to derail it. "People have expressed to me they do not want this tower" because of concerns about radiation, said Martha Ann Jankovic-Mark, R-5.

Jankovic-Mark challenged Baldwin's assertion that federal officials consider the potential antenna no danger.

"The official opinion is that it's unknown," she said. "I think it's an obvious risk we shouldn't be taking at this time."

But Baldwin was quick to point out that the equipment is not a tower, but the kind of antenna that also is hidden in many other structures in town. And he said he wouldn't want to risk danger to town employees, as well as to himself.
Jane Deyoe, R-2, questioned whether the length of the lease was wise. But Baldwin said it was like other town contracts.

Meanwhile, Democrats asked the Republicans why some of their reservations weren't raised at a Legislation & Administration Committee meeting. But Minority Leader Carl Massaro Jr., R-6, said that even though some full council members didn't attend the session, "sometimes there are many, many afterthoughts" on council resolutions.

Town officials said that the Town Hall cupola will be replaced with an identical-looking fiberglass one with sufficient room for the antenna's components.

After failing in their attempts to table the decision, Jeff Jenkins, R-3, was one of two GOP members who voted in favor of the antenna's approval.

"I'm in favor of any communications that would help our police, EMS and fire department," he said. "I don't see any problems with the antenna."