MANCHESTER – Neil Lanz is just one of many residents of the township who aren’t satisfied with the cell phone service they receive.
Lanz expressed to The Manchester Times, “My wife and I purchased a home in Crestwood Village V this past July. We have wonderful neighbors and friends, and enjoy the peace and quiet. Our greatest concern is the lack of cell service in the area. We experience continuous dropped calls and lost navigation.”
“Being new to the area, I use GPS often. I have had a great deal of problems with the GPS not finding locations. I use the GPS that came with my iPhone. The problem is consistent across the three platforms leaving me to believe the problem is cell service,” Lanz said.
“The lack of cell service is both a health and safety issue. A cell tower was erected on route 530, between Congasia Road and Fox Street, three to four years ago. Verizon claims to have service on that tower, however all the people I know do not have adequate service,” he added.
Lanz said, “dropped calls and navigation are a daily problem. When the next forest fire breaks and if it threatens any of the villages requiring evacuation, there will be no communications, leaving residents with no clear idea of which direction to go. I have been advised that even safety services have trouble with this problem.”
Lanz would like to see cell providers increase service. “We and a lot of our friends, use T-Mobile. Residents of Whiting are grossly underserved by the providers and are paying for the shoddy service.”
“This is a major health and safety issue. One night I thought I was having heart issues,” he said.
Lanz said his wife called 911 and Manchester EMS who responded in a very short time. “They were wonderful. However, without home Wifi or a landline, obtaining emergency services could have been a real issue.”
Members of the Manchester Council and professional staff listen to a resident address the governing body during a recent Township Council meeting. (Photo by Bob Vosseller)
During the last Township Council meeting Mayor Robert Arace provided a status update concerning that issue.
“We were able to finally meet with an engineering team at Verizon for the cell tower,” he said. “The third-party owner, American Tower, really had never responded to any of our requests for documents. We never really truly knew if any of the equipment was installed on the tower and before we reported back to the public, we wanted to hear it from Verizon themselves.”
“We pulled up a map and the Route 530 cell tower – believe it or not – has been activated since May of 2022. That said, I think there is obviously still service and connectivity issues in Whiting and they know that as well,” the mayor added.
“They had a big map and particularly over Roosevelt City in particular had a big orange triangle and they are actively looking for a third site for a cell phone tower. Our tax accessor and our public works director are accessing the area and trying to find a spot to tell Verizon about,” he said. “Hopefully, we will get better signal in the future but right now we have what we have in Whiting.”
Pine Lake’s Future
During that meeting a resident posed the question, “what is the intention of Pine Lake?” He noted that a few years ago the lake had been drained and cleanup efforts started but since that time nothing has happened. He hoped to see it restored as a swimming area.
“My personal intent is that at some time in the future the end goal it being a recreation area again. It is really coming down to cost. In the next year I would like an appraisal on what it would take to remediate the lake. I do think the price tag is rather high. Once we have an estimated cost of the project, we will seek outside sources be it federal or state to help fund that,” the mayor replied.
Councilwoman Michele Zolezi said, “the town has been doing that in the last few years. The mayor is absolutely right regarding the cost. We did have some of our professionals looking into it and sometimes you have to prioritize as a community and as a municipality where our money is best spent.”
“It is not off the table and as the mayor indicated they are looking to move forward with that and we do have professionals looking at grants so we can utilize it for all the residents,” she added.
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