Cell tower an affront to Sleepy Hollow

The elected officials of Sleepy Hollow are about to change our village forever.

Recently, the village board gave initial approval for the erecting of a 125-foot cell tower to be placed in the heart of our village. My father and others before and after him worked hard to preserve the country image that attracted so many of us to the village.

This decision by the current village board is an affront to all of their efforts to preserve and maintain what attracted so many of us to Sleepy Hollow. We are supposed to believe that this is the only option the village has to improving communications for its police and fire personnel. It seems that there are other options that would address the village's needs much quicker than erecting another tower.

There are already numerous cell towers that ring the village. There are two towers on Boncosky Road, two at the Elgin toll plaza and a tower north of the village next to Randy's Farm. Why not utilize these towers? If those options don't work, then why not add equipment to the water tower at Spring Hill Mall, or other area water towers?

Surely utilizing some combination of these options would provide the coverage the village needs much quicker than building a 125-foot tower, a tower that everyone would have to look at each day and that would be in everyone's pictures on the Fourth of July, at the Easter Egg Hunt, during the Headless Horsemen bonfire and during the Holidays in the Hollow. Do we airbrush the tower out of our pictures so we can pretend we are maintaining the rural image the village has tried to maintain and preserve for over 50 years?

Rich English

Sleepy Hollow