Longboat Key Letters – Week ending May 11, 2018

New street lights and 5G requirements

To: Town Commission

The Observer reports on the debate on replacement lighting once the GMD and neighborhood utility poles come down.  Whatever design is chosen, I encourage you and staff to consider how any new lights can be incorporated into any plan for 5G wireless antenna deployment.

Deployment of 5G service would certainly improve wireless service on the Key, but the current state of 5G technology requires “small” antenna at least 30 feet high to be placed at least every 300 feet.  (The antennas may need to be even closer than 300 feet on the Key due to the affect surrounding salt water may have on radio transmission).

LBK is just under 10 miles so at least 175 5G antennas would be required on GMD alone.  Perhaps a similar number of antennas would be needed in the neighborhoods.  Each pole would require substantial electronics that are often described as the size of a mailbox.

I have no idea how many utility poles are on GMD but I’d guess about 200 feet apart or about 265 poles on GMD.  Thus, the burial of utility lines and 5G deployment will eliminate 265 poles and replace them with 175 antennas on GDM.    If these antennas are in addition to new light poles, it would seem very little aesthetic gain will have been achieved by burying the utility lines.

The attached article from the Denver post has pictures of some 5G poles already deployed there and the stir they’ve caused.  I’ve also attached a series of pictures of 5G antenna around the country.  Some are OK, but some are downright ugly.

I’ve also attached a photo of a combined 5G antenna and light standard from Ocean City, MD.  Not great, but not too bad.

I encourage you and your staff to find a way to incorporate attractive lighting with the coming 5G wave.

Dan Whelan

Conrad Beach

EUI report on ‘Empowering Cities’

To: Ned Jewett

I’d like to send Philips the count of housing and commercial units on Longboat Key to get a cost estimate from them. Do any of you have those counts?

I’ve pondered the likelihood that smarter street lights might have prevented this week’s pedestrian fatality on Longboat Key.

Bill Cook

Longboat Key

Letter regarding Sea Walls

To: Town Clerk Trish Granger

Attached is a letter from me to you Tom and to the Town Commission regarding the sea wall code update.  I was unable to attend the meeting Monday but thought I might add some value this way.  Would you mind sending this to the Town Commissioners and to Tom with a cc to me?  I don’t have all the email addresses and I could not find them on the town website. Thanks for your help!

Bob Bunting

CEO Waterstone Strategies, Inc.

Charter’s wireless service might arrive next month, and the price sounds right

To: Gene Jaleski

Gene, keeping in mind at this time Charter/Comcast just like Verizons own 5G version building out later this year in CA will be ‘fixed’ and later they will be “transitioning” to mobile.  That’s why the “price seems right.”

When things become mobile and hopefully with a millimeter backhaul we’ll see that price jump a titch.

Two years hence we will probably have single wireless mesh AP’s that can support at least four (4) service providers vying for the most competitive triple play/trifecta also with fully mobile compatibility (leastwise Moore’s Law sez so).

Ed Krepela

Longboat Key

Charter’s wireless service might arrive next month, and the price sounds right

To: Public Works Director Isaac Brownman

This article discusses the wireless industry trend towards inside-out wireless-to-the-home solutions, where connectivity transitions seamlessly between in home connectivity and outdoor small cell access points on poles. Longboat needs to think forward and ask the right questions. Maintaining the status quo does not require a fiber backbone at taxpayers expense, merely to assist the existing Comcast/Frontier pricing hegemony and sub par quality

Gene Jaleski

Longboat Key

Neighborhood Undergrounding Assessment

To: Town Manager Tom Harmer

My wife (Barbara Rowe) and I are residents at 520 Bayport Way, Longboat Key, Florida. Today we received a bill from the Town for Neighborhood Undergrounding for $3,505.22. This is very close to the original figure reached earlier in 2017 BEFORE the town recognized that we were not close abutters nor users of a neighborhood power source (described in minutes as the “Bayport Exemption”). The Town Commission on December 4th adopted a revised assessment of $518.61. We were present at that meeting. This revised figure remains on the Town’s web site.

We assume that incorrect figures were provided to Inframark. This affects us as well as a number of other residents at Bayport. We would appreciate your immediate attention to this error.

Chester Chmielewski

Longboat Key

Neighborhood Undergrounding Assessment

To: Chester Chmielewski

Thank you for bringing this issue to my attention.  I just talked with the Finance Director, the staff is investigating what occurred and the Town will follow-up with you as soon as possible.

Thomas Harmer

Town Manager

Town of Longboat Key

Neighborhood Undergrounding assessment

To: Chester Chmielewski

We have found that the letters for all Bayport Way parcels were sent out with the wrong amounts.

You should receive a new letter with the correct amount within a few days.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Susan Smith

Finance Director

Town of Longboat Key

Let’s Come In Off The Ledge and Stow The Life Boats

To: Mayor George Spoll

One of the Town priorities to repair, replace and allow raising new sea walls up to a foot and half higher is a common sense objective and should be pursued. This to protect waterfront property from storm surges and semiannual extraordinary high tides. Some of our walls are over 60 years old. The decades old North end flooding from heavy rains and tides needs to be finally addressed as well.

However, we must be careful to not jump on the well intended but disingenuous and hysterical “Rising Seas”  bandwagon to justify this sea wall improvement need.  If we do, this will be the fastest and most efficient way to destroy our LBK brand, economy and property values near and long term i.e. “Longboat Key is considering raising sea walls due to the rising seas!”(Oh My!)

As the LBO article  reported, NOAA scientists observe an average of an eighth of an inch in annual sea level increase. That means an average increase of about 6 inches in fifty years and a about foot in a hundred should it continue.

Let us not contribute to the potential for mass hysteria as does the Sarasota Herald Tribune regularly and the “scientists” whose contrived computer models warn of huge and emanate sea level increases in only a few decades. That is the real danger!

Bob Gault

Longboat Key

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