Planning Board OKs Dayton Sign, Wireless Antenna

Dayton High School will soon sport an electronic sign board out front, and an existing cellphone antenna will get an addition as a result of Tuesday's planning board action.

The first order of business was the proposal on behalf of Jonathan Dayton High School to install a light-emitting diode (LED) signboard outside of the school, to replace the existing board. 

Many questions arose as to the safety of an electronically programmable signboard, which the school could change instantly, as opposed to physically changing the letters by hand. 

According to Bruce Fish, owner of Signal Sign Co., the company contracted to install the sign, a state mandate does not allow for it to change wording more than every 8 seconds.  Fish also stated that the LED board would have software installed to "restrict it from flashing and restrict it from animation." No official representative was present to discuss the Board of Education's actual intended use of the sign.    

Board member Andrew Schwartz called the high school's location "one of the worst intersections in town."

When asked for his professional opinion, Township Engineer Robert Kirkpatrick said that "if the sign is considered a distraction, and I think it could be, then the more frequently it changes, the more opportunities there [are] for someone to be distracted."

Ultimately, the Planning Board voted an official recommendation to the Development Review Committee (DRC) that the signboard consist of red LEDs on a black background, to change messages no more than every 10 minutes.

Next up, mobile carrier Metro PCS New York had representative Judy Fairweather proposed building a 10-foot addition on an existing monopole antenna in Springfield.  The monopole is currently 113' high with three mobile carriers having antennas on the existing pole; Metro PCS would be the fourth carrier.   

Mayor Ziad Andrew Shehady asked about the dangers of increased emissions from an additional carrier on the monopole. Metro PCS called on Joseph Chiaravallo, an expert witness in the area of FCC compliance, employed by Pinnacle Telecom Group in Cedar Knolls, to address the issue. Chiaravallo stated that according to his calculations, based on information from carriers and antenna manufacturers, the total of radio frequency emissions including Metro PCS's 10' addition would be .8% of the FCC's allowable levels. 

The proposal was unanimously approved subject to approval by the Department of Environmental Projection (DEP) and a structural review confirming the existing monopole's capability of supporting the additional antenna.