Revere officials commission study to try to shrink proposed 145-foot McKinley School radio tower

Revere city officials said they will commission a technical study to determine whether the proposed 145-foot radio tower at the McKinley School site can be reduced while keeping the planned regional 911 call center’s communications reliable.

The mayor and Tom Skorofsky, the city’s chief of planning and community development, told the City Council on Sept. 15 that Entroba will perform a microwave-path analysis paid for by the regional 911 program and that the city’s owner’s project manager (OPM) will run a peer review. Skorofsky said any reasonable reduction ‘‘might be by, at most, 40 feet, at significant cost, hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in a way that would reduce some redundancy in the system.’’

The study follows weeks of public concern from neighbors about the tower’s height, safety and effect on property values and several council members’ requests for more detail. The council did not vote to approve or reject the tower; councilors and city staff emphasized they are pursuing the McKinley site for the combined benefits of restoring a vacant school, creating early-childhood space and relocating an undersized 911 dispatch center.

Why this matters: City officials said the new call center will replace a cramped, under‑4,000-square-foot dispatch space at the police station and serve Revere, Chelsea and Winthrop with shared staffing and equipment. Public-safety leaders said a tower at the McKinley site provides necessary microwave redundancy that can keep radios and portable units working inside buildings if fiber cables are cut or damaged.

Public safety case and technical answers

Captain Kevin O’Hara, president of Revere Firefighters Local 926, told the council that the proposed tower uses non‑ionizing microwave frequencies and said his union’s investigation found ‘‘Does not cause DNA damage to your DNA. Does not cause cancer.’’ He urged the council to move ahead because firefighters have experienced dead radio zones where they could not communicate inside buildings.

Chief Maria Levita, Revere police chief, and other public-safety witnesses added that the tower is intended to preserve on‑site communications even when the primary fiber path fails. Jay Mazzola, who handles communications for the project team, said the city’s fiber network is a loop but that many local lines share utility poles; ‘‘if the pole goes down, we lost both of them,’’ he said, explaining why a microwave link is sought as a backup.

Health, property-value and notification concerns

Neighbors and several councilors pressed staff on health risks, property values and whether nearby residents were properly notified for Zoning Board of Appeals proceedings. Councilor Kelly asked whether the study is ‘‘just going to revisit the height,’’ and staff confirmed the initial analysis is focused on reducing height and examining alternative microwave paths rather than relocating the call center itself.

Resident Stephanie Desisto, who said she lives on Reservoir Avenue and was not notified, told the council: "I haven't heard 1 mention about quality of life. And lowering the height of this by 40 feet is not a meaningful change because you're still leaving us with a 100 foot structure plunked down in the middle of our neighborhood." She also noted studies showing towers can affect nearby home sales and said she feared placing the burden on homeowners to seek tax abatements.

Process and next steps

Skorofsky said the city voluntarily submitted the tower to the Zoning Board of Appeals even though the city is not required to do so. He told the council the study will be done by Entroba with a peer review by PMA Consultants acting as OPM, and that the 911 region will fund the analysis. He promised the city would consider ‘‘reducing the height by 20, 30, 40 feet or more…as long as it's rational.’’

Skorofsky and public-safety witnesses also said the tower is being designed to withstand high wind loads and to concentrate microwave beams so exposure beyond the beam is minimal, citing Federal Communications Commission guidance on radio and microwave emissions. The city will share study results and updated renderings with the council and return to the ZBA; Skorofsky said a ZBA hearing is scheduled later this month.

Ending

The council did not take a final vote on the tower at the Sept. 15 meeting. The immediate city action is the Entroba microwave-path study and OPM peer review; staff said the study’s cost will be paid out of 911 program funds and that city officials hope the technical work will identify whether a materially shorter design can meet public‑safety requirements without losing critical redundancy.