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Cohasset Select Board releases legal opinion, directs study of alternative sites after park tower outcry
Summary
After residents pressed the Select Board to protect Wheelwright Park from a proposed cell tower, the board released town counsel’s opinion and voted unanimously to have the town manager study alternative town-owned sites while vendor RF studies continue.
The Cohasset Select Board on June 16 released a town-counsel opinion on the proposed Wheelwright Park cell tower and unanimously directed the town manager to study alternative town-owned locations to address a local public-safety cellular coverage gap.
The decision came after several residents urged the board to preserve Wheelwright Park and raised legal and donor-intent objections. Town Manager Michelle Leary told the board the vendor is evaluating the RTF site and running microwave and radio-frequency studies; she also said small cell technology would be cost-prohibitive, estimating about $2.5 million per carrier to deploy roughly 60 small-cell nodes.
Residents argued the project should not proceed in the park. Barbara Wrenn asked the board to consider small-cell antennas instead of a large tower and to renegotiate the contract to avoid destroying parkland. Virginia Brophy questioned the legality of conveying town-owned land without a specific town meeting vote. Adam Norman of the Open Space and Recreation Committee urged the board to honor donors’ intent for the land to remain for passive recreation.
Chair David Farrag summarized the town-counsel opinion, saying the article voted at a prior Town Meeting was nonbinding, and cautioned that eliminating vested lease rights could expose the town to lawsuits for specific performance or treble damages. Farrag also criticized a social-media post by the Open Space and Recreation Committee that he said suggested the Select Board "hoped citizens would forget the Town Meeting vote." The committee’s chair, Virginia Laclair, defended the committee, saying their post did not disparage the board and that members believed the tower had initially been presented as a done deal.
Following discussion, the board voted 5-0 on two formal actions: to release the town-counsel opinion dated June 1, 2026, and to direct Town Manager Michelle Leary, "subject to and without waiving or breaching any current contracts or contractual rights," to study and investigate alternative public-safety cell-tower locations on town-owned land to address the coverage gap previously identified in the town’s RFP.
Next steps include the vendor’s ongoing RF and microwave testing of the RTF site and the town manager’s study of town-owned alternatives. The board did not vote to rescind any existing leases during the meeting.
