Ocean Beach Park in New London draws crowds from throughout the state, but for residents of Stuart Avenue, the beach park is their home and not the right place for a cell phone tower.
Susan Walsh and her neighbors are leading the fight to stop a 140-foot cell phone tower from going up at the park entrance, next to a 60-foot light tower and smack dab across the street from their homes.
They feel the city council approved the cell tower contract with communications company, MCM, with little input from the public.
Under that contract, the city receives more than $1 million over roughly 20 years.
But Walsh believes the city should use distributed antennae service on current telephone poles and buildings instead of a tower.
In the meantime, Mayor Martin Olsen Jr. said he believes new information presented on Monday could be useful and perhaps the council will reconsider or put the proposal on hold. However, he admits that there's no easy solution.
Opponents of the proposed cell phone tower plan to pack city hall in New London at 6:30 p.m. to ensure that the city council hears their concerns.
