Cell antenna could bring spots back from the dead

Tuesday, July 1, 2003 | 11:24 a.m.

Residents and others who use cellular phones in the northwest part of town are often frustrated by "dead spots" -- areas where they suddenly lose service.

The Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday could take a major step toward alleviating that problem in the booming northwest part of the valley.

The council will consider a request by its staff to enter into negotiations with AT&T Wireless, which wants to install an antenna on the light pole of one of the ballfields at the city-owned Mountain Ridge Park. The park is west of U.S. 95, south of where Durango Drive crosses the highway.

"We approached the city because this is an area that needs more coverage," said Anne Marshall, spokeswoman for AT&T Wireless in the company's regional office in Seattle.

"We try to locate antennas in a public area. Our preference is to install them onto something existing so people don't notice them. Putting one on a light pole is not unusual. In Arizona we have a site disguised to look like a cactus."

The City Council real estate committee of Councilman Lawrence Weekly and Councilwoman Janet Moncrief on Monday sent the measure to the full council with a "do pass" recommendation.

City officials say the proposed project would benefit tens of thousands of the Las Vegas Valley's cellular phone users and they hope it will resolve some of the glitches that cause temporary loss of service.

Marshall said it is her company's policy not to divulge specific numbers of customers, but she said she "would not argue" with the city's assessment of the numbers of cell phone users who will benefit from the proposed tower.

"This will provide coverage where coverage does not exist," Marshall said, noting that other cell phone companies with roaming agreements with AT&T also would have use of the antenna. "We also will be able to deliver data services (for cell phones), which has not existed in the area before."

This is the first request for a cell phone antenna to come before the city in at least three years, said David Roark, manager of real estate and assets for the city of Las Vegas.

"The purpose is to eliminate the dead spot problem, and there are a number of them in the Summerlin area," Roark said, noting one problem is that most developments in Summerlin have rules that don't allow cell phone towers.

"Putting the antenna on the light pole at a ballfield eliminates the controversy."

The Summerlin Council, which oversees the privately owned parks in the master-planned community, has allowed cell phones towers in its parks if they are disguised, said Hal Bloch, president of Summerlin North Homeowners Association, one of the three homeowners associations represented on the council.

"We have accepted cell phone towers in parks where the configuration of the tower is such that it is acceptable from an aesthetic point of view," Bloch said, "and we do get revenue from them."

He reserved judgment on the city's plan to allow the cell antenna on a ballfield light tower.

"Is it a good thing? Only if it's not an eyesore," Bloch said. "It's a good thing if it generates revenue and is acceptable from an aesthetic point of view.

"I don't think there's a hard and fast answer yes or no."

No one attended Monday's public hearing to support or protest the proposal that, if approved, also would result in the construction of a 10-by-20-foot compound with an 8-foot high wall around the antennas, which would be installed 70 feet up on an 80-foot light pole.

Roark said that because the antennas will be so high up, they will not be at risk of being struck or damaged by a fly ball.

Marshall said the antennas are "built to be durable." She said in Anchorage, Alaska, the devices have withstood winds of 100 mph with no major damage. Saying that more than half the country now uses wireless phones, Marshall said her company is seeking other sites for antennas in the city's northwest.

City staff said the measure will have no fiscal impact on the city's general fund.

"As growth occurs in the valley, additional wireless communications facilities are required to continue to provide valley residents with communication services," according to a memo from the city's director of Public Works Richard Goecke to the City Council in support of the staff's position.

Sun reporter

Jean Reid Norman contributed to this story.