NEWS FLASH! Franklin Park begins official public survey!
Borough Council has asked CityScape to survey the public about whether we would like a giant eyesore at the golf course - and various other cell-tower-related questions. Don't wait! Please answer the survey today! They've sent out a postcard, but you can also follow this link:
https://forms.gle/WDRf2SAaW4hFn2VWA
Points you might want to bring up include:
- The massive decrease in property values that would follow a giant eyesore -- and let's not kid ourselves, there is no camouflage to make a giant eyesore look like it blends in. The way to prevent the golf course from looking like it has a huge eyesore is not to build a huge eyesore.
- Improvements in technology (Wi-Fi calling, small cells, etc) that make a giant cell tower unnecessary
- CityScape's own dedicated study demonstrating that an enormous tower on the golf course isn't needed for emergency services (boy, was Verizon's main buddy on Borough Council angry when he heard that!)
- Clear-cutting 1/4 acre to make room for the tower - and still more to make a path to it
- Legally mandated huge, ugly barbed-wire fence around the tower base
- Aircraft warning light the FAA would likely require at the top of the tower: since the golf course is on a flight path, a 150-200 foot tall tower on it will almost certainly need a blinking warning light, blinking 24-7-365 in all weather, and bright enough to be seen from miles away by pilots
- Loud diesel generator to provide power backup during outages
- Verizon has already conceded that they're willing to build small cells in Franklin Park, by building 4 of them. We've said for years that they would, but Borough Council had believed them when they insisted that they wouldn't. Now they've shown through their actions that they'll do it the right way (by building small cells) if Franklin Park insists on it -- so that's what Borough Council needs to do.
Franklin Park residents continue to deserve better. We deserve to know what's going on. We deserve to know Borough Council's plans, and their reasons for their plans, with respect to a contentious issue where they have a sad track record of trying to keep their plans away from public scrutiny. We deserve better than their tired old excuses about why they technically, you see don't have to share this or that. The default should be automatic, complete, and prompt transparency!
Check the agenda HERE within 24 hours before the meeting - you'll often find last-minute changes involving controversial topics. On some computers you may need to create a username and password to read agendas and minutes -- but at least they are free to create and use. (Contact us if you need help.)
Borough Council has been known in the past to push discussion of the cell tower to the very beginning or the very end (the current record is 9:44 PM) of the meeting. They have also listed late times for cell-tower discussions, then moved quickly and addressed the cell-tower business well ahead of schedule.. So: Try to get there on time, and stick around until they're done!
The "pre-meeting" is open to the public (see below) and borough council has often used such meetings to do their actual discussion about the cell tower plans.
Committee meetings, "pre-meetings," "post-meetings," and work sessions happen in the back room behind the main meeting room at the borough building. They are open to the public (except during executive sessions, most often at the very end), even though this is not obvious. There was a brief discussion about a year ago of putting up a sign stating "Open to the Public," but this has not happened as of January 2025: apparently writing those four words on a sheet of paper and taping it to the back room's door is not something Borough Council wants to do.
That says a lot about Borough Council and its theoretical "transparency," doesn't it?
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The public often doesn't get to comment at the back-room meetings, but simply knowing what the old boys' club is discussing can be very helpful.
The door in the back right of the main meeting room is the easiest way to reach the area where the public can sit for committee meetings, work sessions, "pre-meetings," and "post-meetings."
The address is:
2344 W Ingomar Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15237
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Stay tuned for June meeting details!
Borough council normally meets on the first and third Wednesdays of each month.
The first meeting is a "work session" where the public doesn't usually get to talk, but where they often discuss the cell tower. The second meeting usually glosses over the cell tower, but lets us talk.
So: listen at the first meeting, and tell the public what you heard at the second.
We defeated it in 2017. We defeated it in 2020. And together, we can do it again this year!
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We didn't move to Franklin Park to live next to a massive, potentially unsafe eyesore. Franklin Park has better options.
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If we all act together, we can send a clear message to Borough Council: NO cell tower at the golf course!
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In theory, they're committed to transparency.
Here's what their "transparency" looks like in practice.
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