Lower Towamensing Township's zoning hearing board is asking Verizon Wireless to explore using Palmerton Area School District land for a cell tower instead of a site behind Palmerton Lumber Company at 380 Sand Quarry Road.

Verizon representatives were in front of the board Tuesday asking for a variance to build the tower in a Village Center zoning district.The hearing was ultimately continued after the representatives acknowledged many notices of the proceeding went undelivered to neighbors of the project. A date for the continued hearing is yet to be announced.The few neighbors in attendance Tuesday said the compensation the district would receive from hosting Verizon's 140-foot tower, including a 5-foot lightning rod, would greatly benefit taxpayers."I think less people would see the tower if it were on the school district land adjacent to the current project site," Jim Christman, a Harvard Court resident. "You're going to have at least 44 homes in eyesight of this tower. Across the street from the school you have maybe half a dozen properties."Verizon's site acquisition consultant Sue Manchel said she didn't approach the district because she felt it would actually be more visible on their land."There was also a terrain issue and the fact that school districts don't always want cell towers on their land," Manchel said.Jason Amorim, of East Princeton Avenue, also said he feels the tower would be best suited on land owned by a taxing body or a site like the old Zinc Company, which he said is "already an eyesore.""I agree with you, but there is such a machine out there when you have numerous cellphone companies," said James Ord, Lower Towamensing Zoning Hearing Board chairman. "None of them work together to do this. They're not thinking about what is good for the township or the taxpayer. That is why it's not happening thatway."Manchel said the Palmerton Lumber Company site was picked because "it is an area where Verizon needs a tower, the property owner was interested, and the tower would be away from residents and not in the way of business operations."During further testimony Tuesday, Andrew Petersohn of DBM Engineering said Verizon's old way of positioning towers isn't working anymore due mostly to the additional demand for data."Right now Verizon has a tower on Blue Mountain above the Lehigh Tunnel," he said."Around 15-20 years ago, towers were put at the highest point and the power was cranked way up. That worked for the first generation of phones when you just kept them in the car for an emergency or something. Now, a handful of smaller sites are the answer. The site has to be closer to subscriber now."The proposed tower would serve about a 2-mile radius.Petersohn said the eastern part of Palmerton borough and central part of Lower Towamensing have poor coverage inside sturdy buildings.Christman, Amorim and other neighbors disagreed."Verizon has the best coverage in the area," Christman said.Ord said the stance on cell towers in the township has changed over the years."When we first started getting all of these requests we said no a lot," he said. "We wanted the carriers to go back and figure out a way that they could pick several locations in the township and put all their equipment on those towers. Then they never came back and we had no cell reception. To continue the kind of service people demand, we need the towers."Dispelling any safety concerns, Petersohn said the frequency band used to transmit the signal is 220 times less than what the Federal Communications Commission considers safe.Petros Tsoukalas, an engineer representing Verizon, spoke of other project specifics."There will be a 7-foot fence with one foot of barbed wire to encompass a 50-by-50 area," he said. "An outdoor generator will be used only if the power goes out. The only noise would come from the generator, which Tsoukalas said we would be 65 decibels, comparable to a normal speaking voice in a normal-sized room.The tower would be able to accommodate equipment from three other cell carriers.