Cingular's Application to put a 162' cell tower on the corner of Lower Shore and Old Lower Shore Roads will conclude on Tuesday, July 8th at 7:30 in the Township Municipal Building. Many citizens attended the Special Cell Tower Meeting on March 31st to give their opinions concerning this matter, but were disappointed when, by the end of the meeting, Cingular had not yet concluded their case.

Concerned residents will definitely have an opportunity to state their opinions at the meeting on Tuesday night, however, before the Zoning Board votes on the application. Former Zoning Board Chairman, Fred Rubenstein, who had attended the most recent Cell Tower Meeting and asked to testify for the opposition, will also attend Tuesday night's meeting to give his perspective along with the other residents.

Many aspects of this fight have been most disconcerting such as:

• the Township's misleading notification about the Cell Tower Ordinance that was so vague that no residents realized that the corner of Lower Shore and Old Lower Shore Roads had been designated as the township's only cell tower site. Residents first heard about it four years later when several families received notice that Cingular was seeking variances to put a cell tower on the corner in question. That's three years and 10 1/2 months after the 45-day window during which residents would have had an opportunity to object to the Township using this undersized lot as a cell tower site.
• evidence that Cingular's engineers apparently worked with the Township to prepare the bid specifications and, in effect, write their own ticket for the proposed cell tower.
• the Township's and Cingular's shifting testimony concerning who Cingular's engineers were actually working for when they developed the site plan that became part of the Township's bid specifications. Many residents feel that their participation demonstrates at best, a conflict of interest and at worst, collusion.
• the refusal of Ocean County Court's Judge Grasso to acknowledge that forty of Barnegat's residents signed on to a Complaint Against Barnegat's Cell Tower Ordinance, over the course of just two days, in an effort to demonstrate that our opposition to this application does reflect the concerns of the general public and not just the concerns of a few.
• Mayor Jeff Melchiondo and the Township Committee's refusal to acknowledge that seven landowners in the area of the proposed site have offered to house the cell tower on their own properties where, in every case, it could be placed well off the road, out of sight and without the need for variances.

Fortunately other aspects of this fight have been most reassuring such as:

• the willingness of so many residents to give up their time to attend Zoning Board meetings, to sign on to our Complaint, to give space to our concerns on their websites, and to join together to speak out against this application regardless of party affiliation.
• the validation that our opposition has received as a result of ongoing coverage from many newspapers and radio stations.
• the Zoning Board's clear message, at recent meetings, that they respect our opinions as residents of Barnegat Township and are very interested to hear our views on this issue.