I have been a vocal opponent to the siting of a Chappy cell tower on Sampson avenue. I might be the most visible in our group, but I am not alone.

I would like to ask the citizens of Edgartown, and of Martha’s Vineyard, to consider for a moment this literally monumental decision to erect a 120-foot tower on Chappy.

The tower has been touted for its public safety benefits and we agree. We know a cell tower would be highly beneficial to public safety for everyone on Chappy. No one opposes that.

But a tower, for everyone’s benefit, required for public safety — just like a police or fire station — belongs on town land.

Throughout this process, selectmen and planning board, town manager and others, all testified that a tower on Chappy belongs on town land. It still does.

Siting a tower on town land is safer, less impactful, more compliant and more equally shares the burden of a tower across all the residents of Martha’s Vineyard, Edgartown and Chappy. Placing the cell tower in the woods, away from peoples’ homes, preserves the quiet enjoyment, and safety, of everyone’s home on Chappaquiddick. That’s all we really ask.

A cell tower is not forever. It is not like a house which could exist for hundreds of years, but has a finite life span — 20, 30, 40 years.

Making town land available for a cell tower now is not forever. And in the future, determining when to remove the tower is best left in the hands of the residents of the town. Maybe 20 years from now, maybe 50, but it should be up to the town and its residents to make that determination.

The tower should be owned by a corporation with the resources to remove the tower and all of the ground-based infrastructure in the future. A company with resources to not simply remove the tower, ship it off the Island, and dispose of it properly, but to restore and remediate the site; our stewardship of this precious landscape demands that.

People focus on the upper reaches of a tower as its impact. It’s a 10-story structure, like other towers everyone is going to see it, and that is the true cost of the cell phones we all carry.

But the tower itself is only one component of a cell tower. It’s the ground-based infrastructure — air conditioning systems running day and night, generators being exercised every week, ongoing repairs and construction, maintenance and upgrades, and the noise and traffic associated with all of that for each carrier — that will adversely impact the quality of life in our quiet, little least-affluent, year-round neighborhood.

One thing my neighbors and I are certain of, is that this tower will never get any smaller. It will only grow, with larger generators, air conditioners and ground-based sprawl, and will very likely go even higher in the future. Federal law permits a 20-foot height extension, by right. AT&T can change generators and air conditioning systems at will, increasing the noise, without any review whatsoever.

Putting a tower, for everyone’s benefit, on town land is the tough decision that those in government are charged to make, but ultimately, it is a better, safer, decision. It’s the right thing to do for everyone.

Putting the tower on town land deprives no one of coverage, improves public safety for everyone and shares the burden more equally among residents for the next 20 years.

This is not a decision that should be made out of exhaustion or apathy. This is not NIMBY; we ask the tower be moved just a half mile, not across the island.

This is your neighbors asking you to share this burden with us.

That can only happen by siting the tower on one of the large, town-owned sites on Chappaquiddick, in the woods away, from everyones’ homes. And that can only happen with your help.

We ask you to please join us as we work tirelessly to uphold our stewardship of this most special place we are fortunate enough to call home. We ask that this tower be placed on town land, for everyone’s benefit.

Rob Strayton

Chappaquiddick