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EAR EDITOR:
I was surprised to see that The Vindicator gave an Orchid to the Poland Township Trustees for reversing their decision to permit construction of a cell tower on the township administration building property six months after it was approved. As pointed out in the Oct. 10 article in The Vindicator, a big concern from residents was the lack of transparency or community input on the matter from the start.
The vote for the cell tower came a mere month after the April 9 meeting when it was proposed by a representative of the construction company. On Oct. 8, Trustee Ungaro said "the cell tower company was supposed to send out flyers to neighboring residents" which did not happen because nothing had been signed. At the April meeting Trustee Ungaro stated they would "lean on Zoning" regarding the matter. Although cell towers are not addressed in Poland Township's Zoning Ordinance (wind energy systems are somewhat), the normal course for a zoning variance request to the Board of Zoning Appeals is to notify adjacent property owners of the date and time of a hearing regarding the request. In this scenario, the affected residents deserved a similar notice by the township regarding the May agenda but did not and it could be argued that one month is hardly enough time to accomplish this by a department that contends to be "very busy."
Considering The Vindicator's stance on public records and public-interest journalism, I was also surprised that this matter was not covered back in April or May. I can only hope that in the future it would spend as much time covering Poland Township as it does Poland Village, Austintown Township, Boardman Township, Canfield Township and the city of Canfield.
KIM R. KOTHEIMER
Poland