Verizon seeks space in Old Brick Church

BY JASON STARR Observer staff

Williston Village is a notorious cell phone black hole. Help may be on the way, but it will take changes to the Old Brick Church to make it happen.

“People think the only place it happens is out in the country somewhere, but we are here in the Village and we have no cell service,” said North Williston Road resident Carmyn Stanko.

Verizon has made a proposal to the town that, according to its representative Andrew Davis of SAI Communications, will greatly improve service in the Village. Plans call for antennas to be installed in the steeple of the church and an equipment storage shed to be built off the back as part of

Andrew Davis

a $24,000-a-year lease with the town.

The selectboard has so far been supportive.

“I think there are a lot of Verizon users who would be very happy if we get this in,” board member Jeanne Jensen said.

Stanko said she would switch from AT&T to Verizon if the project makes her cell phone functional. She currently uses voice-over-internet technology to make calls through her home’s wifi signal. If her power goes out, however, she loses the ability to make a call — an unnerving reality.

The same situation exists at the Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston Federated Church and Williston Central School. Communicating with cell phones in these buildings can only be done via wifi.

“We work around it but there definitely is an impact,” Library Director Jane Kearns said.

The library’s wifi allows patrons and staff to use their phones, but when the library goes mobile, with Dottie the Bookmobile for example, the lack of service comes into play.

“There are neighborhoods where we have no service, the ones closest to the library, so we have to do (circulation tracking) manually, then we have to put it into the database when we get back to the library,” Kearns said.

At Village Community Park,