Surveying the Survey

Last issue of The Springdale Sun, I mentioned I would be commenting on the survey whose purpose was to get community feedback on how to best improve cell coverage in Springdale. I referred to the survey as “flawed.” I did not mean to imply it was grossly worded, just that surveys are not all that reliable as indicators of public opinion.

A typical kind of problem, for instance, were questions asking about coverage at ones workplace in Springdale but included respondents who do not work in Springdale. Also, poor coverage was defined as 1 bar indoors. I often have 1 bar, seldom more than 2, but still really good cell coverage. Similarly, where I live on the map had blue spots which were identified as places where coverage was bad. But, it’s good where I live.

About the only thing that was clear from the survey is people want coverage but do not want to see cell towers or similar.

The comments were probably the most useful indicators and, unfortunately, do not show consensus. But they certainly show a consistent theme which can be summarized by one commenter’s statement, “Please do not blight the town.”.

Here are all the comments:

1. Why do the proposed remedies stop before Canyon View Rd in the Watchman neighborhood?

2. I don't think the service is that bad though inconsistent. I can live with it as it currently exists.

3. We look forward to great service, however it happens!

4. With fiber in town, I do not actually see a reason to extend cell coverage but would prefer the town help get fiber to residences. I have it at both my businesses and it is amazing and we use VOIP instead of cell coverage and it is an easy way to get the best coverage.

5. Love this conversation

6. Design infrastructure for the best service while doing all possible to conceal it

7. Springdale was not meant to be a modern business city if tourists passing through town are so concerned about wifi, cellphones, iPads and internet access tell them to stay home.

8. You have a solution that is in search of a problem. Cell coverage at every point of the town is not essential. As technology changes the solutions will change but we will still have to use the infrastructure that we deploy now. We don’t need another unsightly piece of tech that will grow outdated like the Century Link Drum in the middle of the town. The residents are covered fine between the existing cell coverage and wifi access. Please don’t blight the town.

9. Thank you for doing this!

10. Use the boulder idea anything else is going to ruin our views

11. I support getting better wireless cell phone connection to our community. However, the proposal seems like way too many towers whether Macro or smaller. 9 Macro or up to 40 smaller sites or even the Hybrid seems a little overwhelming and too much for our little town. Can we scale it down? I'm concerned we are all going to be fried in our little town with too much wireless towers. I also am somewhat concerned having a cell tower go near our water source or water tower - not sure this is healthy. Thank you for listening to my concerns. But, also thank you for wanting to better our cell phone service which we need better service for emergencies and all the visitors who are using up our service.

12. Thank you for prioritizing this. While I love our small town feel, I think that with the number of visitors, cell connectivity is an important convenience.

13. The town should not try meet the needs of visitors during high season but rather what the needs are for “residents" - recognizing there may be times of the year when coverage isn’t optimum. A higher level of coverage means a greater need for more infrastructure with a higher impact to view sheds.

14. Perhaps a public meeting to explain the ramifications and show details would be more appropriate than a questionnaire. I need further explanation to fill this out properly.

15. This kind of survey should be presented to the public with the experts giving a presentation. There are many more questions to be answered and considering the health risks of 5 g etc so this survey was inadequate for the proposed infrastructure.

16. Maps confusing. Won’t the promised full distribution of fiber optic service to all residences be helpful in improving cell phone service?

Some comments should spark further study, (4, 16), or further information dissemination, (10, 14, 15, 16). They did not.

What’s your conclusion from these comments?

And speaking of cell towers, it occurs to me that getting landlines back in Springdale would reduce the need for cell towers. That’s where Mayor Bruno’s abilities can shine. She went up to the right person at a meeting about something else altogether (so she made it the right time) and said something like Springdale needs fiber optics. How can we make that happen? And it happened.

Now is the time for her to go up to CenturyLink of Community Phone or Vonage or Zoom or who or whatever and ask, “how can we make that happen?”

Or maybe go up to Atlas Towers and ask, “How can we make that NOT happen?”