WATERFORD – Dropped calls and poor reception may be a thing of the past if the Board of Selectmen succeeds in bringing cell-phone service to town.
Acting on a suggestion by Tom Murch, of Sandlot Ball Field fame, the board has decided to explore the possibility of courting a service provider and putting a tower at the back of the Town Office.
“Number one, cell phone service is dumb because you pay for it around here and you can’t use it,” Selectman Whizzer Wheeler said while talking with Murch on Wednesday.
Wheeler said a small tower behind the Town Office wouldn’t be very visible, and he didn’t expect many people would be offended.
Murch said Unicel and U.S. Cellular may be two cell-phone service providers willing to work with the town. Not only would the tower be “for the town to use, but also for the town to make some money on it,” he said.
Whether either company would be willing to work with the town or money could be made by leasing the tower space remains to be seen.
When reached Monday, Miriam Svobodny, a communications manager for Unicel, could not comment on whether the company would be able to work with Waterford. She did say, however, that Unicel has developed small towers in the interest of providing expanded service that is compatible with town environments.
Some towers used today, she said, “can be as small as a college dorm refrigerator.”
No representative from U.S. Cellular could be reached Monday afternoon.
Donning a big grin, Murch joked the town could charge as much as $1,200 an hour to rent the tower. He added that the money could pay for a dome over the Sandlot Ball Field.
“I tell you, I want a dome,” he said, adding that fields in Topsham, Gorham and Portland have domes.
Wheeler said he planned to discuss the idea with Selectmen Chairman Charles Fillebrown Jr. that morning.
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