Council OKs T-Mobile Antenna off Bristol Pike

On Monday evening, Bensalem Township Council approved an application by a cell phone company to place an antenna on an existing tower despite opposition from a concerned township resident.

T-Mobile Northeast LLC asked to add an antenna to a 148-foot tower located at 1528 Bristol Pike, behind the trucking facility.

An attorney for the project noted that the application required no increase in tower height nor any expansion of the ground equipment area at its base, even though there are already five other carriers' antennae on the tower.

T-Mobile’s site acquisition professional and radio frequency and site engineers testified that the antenna was needed for coverage gaps on Woodhaven Road and I-95 and the tower could handle the extra equipment.

Andrew Niczewski, of the Belmont Hills section of the township, told council members that he was against the application even though it’s not in his back yard.

He doesn’t think the towers belong near residential neighborhoods. He noted that, according to AntennaSearch.com, there are already 75 cell towers and 283 antennae in a four-mile radius around this site.

Niczewski found that council members agreed with him regarding the looks of the towers, but the panel said it has little choice regarding cell tower applications.

“We’re between a rock and a hard space,” said Councilman Ed Kisselback, noting that if the towers are safe and the project is done by guidelines, they have to approve the applications.

Councilman Tony Belfield characterized the towers as “intrusive” and “ugly,” but his colleague Joseph Knowles took it a step further.

“If the day comes when we don’t need cell towers,” he said. “Believe me, I’ll be out there with a hacksaw myself.”

Given that information, Niczewski was asked what he expected council to do with this application.

“Vote your conscious,” he told the members, leaving them with some literature on new advances in cell technology that could make towers and antennae obsolete.

In the end, council unanimously approved the plan.

Niczewski has become somewhat of a cell expert since learning last year that T-Mobile wanted to build a tower on his neighbor’s property. He’s been to numerous town meetings to express opposition to that project as well.

Council is set to hear that application on Feb. 28. Niczewski hopes that his neighbors will join him in opposition against the tower.