By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

A potential cell phone tower in Ocean Pines could benefit the majority of residents, with equipment redirection and small cell towers serving as supplementary support toward more reliability.

Last week, representatives from Milestone Towers, a cell tower building company, and Verizon Wireless hosted a question-and-answer-style town hall for Ocean Pines residents on the intricacies of a possible new cell phone tower within the wooded community’s bounds. The meeting was held virtually.

A possible cell tower could help alleviate Ocean Pines’ spotty reception, a hindrance to the vast majority of the community’s citizens. The connection issue is particularly problematic during the busy summer months when an influx of tourists and part-time residents flock to the coastal neighborhood and its surrounding areas, crowding and straining the nearby network connection sites.

A new tower, representatives said last week, could spread out where cell phone users receive their service, alleviating the overcapacity problem and thus improving residents’ abilities to make calls and send texts.

The project to build a new tower on community property has been led by Ocean Pines Police Chief Tim Robinson, whose central worry is public safety. While emergency calls can be made with an ‘SOS’ signal, indicated at the top of a phone where bars are typically located, a ‘No Signal’ reading means that no phone calls, including those to 911, will be picked up. The chief has held talks with Ocean Pines officials, carrier representatives, and Milestone Towers over the past several months, attempting to advance the initiative. Last week’s Q&A session was held to allow residents to ask questions about their specific concerns.

The town hall began with an overview from Matt Forkas, the project manager for Milestone Towers. According to the representative, the company, based in Virginia, has built over 200 cell sites with over 50 municipal landowners, many of which are located in Maryland. A few of these can be found in Worcester’s neighboring county of Wicomico.

If approved by the Ocean Pines Association and the Worcester County government, the cell phone tower will be built behind the maintenance facility at the community’s golf course. Forkas added that two other locations were considered: the OPA Community Center and the eastern part of the golf club, but were ultimately deemed less viable than the chosen site.

The Milestone Towers representative noted that the area near the golf course’s maintenance building is centrally located, ensuring the maximum amount of community impact possible. It is also in an ideal spot to avoid interfering with Ocean Pines operations.

“The area itself was flat and easy to get to and would cause the least amount of friction for the community itself,” Forkas said.

If erected, the cell phone tower will be approximately 150 feet tall, constructed of steel, with room for up to four wireless carriers to offer service. Signed on are Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T. The structure will be camouflaged to resemble a tree, blending in with the Ocean Pines aesthetic. Once passed by the necessary parties, the project will take 12 to 18 months before service goes online and reception noticeably improves. Forkas said that a year and a half is likely a more accurate estimate.

Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile will offer service out of the tower upon its completion. Milestone Towers would put up the structure at their cost, while Ocean Pines would not incur any of the build’s price tag. Furthermore, the cell tower will yield funds for OPA. Each carrier is to pay approximately $ 2,500 per month for the use of the infrastructure, and Milestone Towers and OPA would split the resulting revenue.

Much of the town hall was spent discussing the level of impact OPA residents can expect from the tower. A previous presentation revealed that the area within a one-mile radius of the structure will feel the most benefits. The signal would weaken further from the cell site. Forkas maintained that the houses closest to the infrastructure would experience the most noticeable improvement in reception. However, homes outside the closest zone will also see some connection enhancement.

Paul Plymouth, Verizon’s director of state government and local engagement, said that while the most significant level of impact will be in that one-mile radius, the areas further from the tower will still experience improvements. This is because other wireless connection structures currently in place near Ocean Pines, which are now overcrowded, will feel less of a strain with a new tower available, thus increasing service for all of Ocean Pines.

“What we want to get across is that the network right now is so congested, so putting in that tower makes things a lot better in that general area,” Plymouth explained. “We’ve all been in a situation where we’ve been caught up in Bay Bridge traffic, and it’s like a five-mile backup. What we’re looking to do would essentially eliminate four to four and a half miles of traffic in the backup that you’re experiencing. While there’s still going to be some congestion, and there are some ways we can deal with that congestion, there’s going to be a much bigger impact for the general area.”

He added that the new tower will alleviate reception issues for those closest to the golf course facility. For those furthest away, such as the community’s southeast, there are steps they can take to enhance their connection, if needed.

For instance, Plymouth stated that once the new tower is constructed and pressure is taken off the current infrastructure, equipment from the existing towers can be redirected to OPA’s southeast to enhance service in those neighborhoods not directly within the new build’s impact zone.

Some residents at the town hall inquired why small cell towers, which are smaller structures that target areas within 250 to 600 feet, weren’t being considered. Homeowner Dave Tanner maintained that small cells are less noticeable than a 150-foot tower, preserving Ocean Pines’ natural beauty.

Plymouth stated that a large tower will help improve service to a larger portion of the community, and that if a few streets require additional assistance in the future, small cells may be considered. Still, Verizon would first like to assess the impact of the big tower. Any necessary next steps may then be reviewed.

“We think a tower is the most appropriate first step,” he said. “A cell tower is going to be most appropriate for covering the largest area, helping with coverage and capacity, and in the future, if we need to install small cells, we can do that in a targeted manner. Those small cells just help with capacity. For those who live in the southeastern portion of Ocean Pines, if we build the tower and reposition some of the surrounding equipment, and it turns out not to help the southeastern portion as we thought, then we can consider the small cell route. But we would have the right infrastructure in place with a new tower for those small cells to offload the capacity stress on the network, versus if we just put small cells all across Ocean Pines.”

Officials agreed that the proposed 150-cell phone tower is the best first step and will yield the largest improvement to the community’s reception.

“This is the optimal solution for your area,” added Dave Reinauer, a Verizon representative. “There’s no question. You are going to see significant improvement in all of Ocean Pines as a result of this. Will it be perfect for everyone? No, but it will be the best way to enhance coverage in a fairly quick manner…What I don’t want to leave you with is that once the service is up and running, it’s the end, be-all. It’s a constant process of tweaking our network, updating equipment, and adjusting other cell sites to achieve different orientations. But the first step is this cell site. If you want to enhance your coverage here, this is your way to start. This is the solution.”

Verizon and Milestone Tower representatives maintain that a new cell tower within the limits of the Ocean Pines Association will help alleviate the community’s spotty reception. According to officials, they plan to build new wireless infrastructure, which will likely remedy service issues for roughly 85% of Ocean Pines, and then assess any further improvements that can be made. This will likely come in the form of repositioning existing towers towards the portions of OPA that will experience limited effects from the new structure, particularly the southeast. If this supplemental measure has minimal impact, the carriers will consider using small cells to target specific streets.

The notes from the town hall were forwarded to OPA leadership for review. Forkas said that the next step in the tower initiative is to seek approval from the Ocean Pines Board of Directors, and if approved, the project will then be considered by the county government. The community will be notified with updates as they become available.