T Mobile's proposal to erect a 60-foot antenna on top of the Police Department on Longbrook Avenue will go before the Zoning Commission later this month. The commission will hold a hearing on the tower application when it meets at 7 p.m. Aug. 16 in Town Hall.

The proposed cell tower would replace a smaller antenna currently atop police headquarters, Gary Lorentson, zoning administrator, said. The existing antenna would then top off the new tower at a height of 60 feet. The tower would be used commercially for local cell phone users and as a part of the town's emergency communications system.

Lorentson said he has heard no complaints from neighbors yet. "You have to notify the neighbors with abutting property," he said. "Our town regulations do encourage us to make as much use of existing structures as possible."

Although the Town Council has already approved a pact with the communications giant, T Mobile is seeking approval of a special case petition under town zoning regulations to erect the tower in a residential district. While the tower is being built, the cell phone company, which would foot the entire $60,000 bill to erect the tower, will pay the town $100 a month, Town Manager Benjamin Branyan said.

After completion, the town will be paid $2,000 a month in rent by T Mobile, plus an additional 3 percent every year thereafter. Across the nation, cities and towns are collecting revenue by allowing telecommunications companies to install communications devices on municipal radio towers and other elevated structures.

The Planning Commission rejected a proposed 125-foot wireless communications tower atop the Fire Department headquarters five years ago. Commissioners said at the time that the AT&T tower's appearance and size would be inappropriate for the town's center. Sprint, however, has a tower on the roof of Town Hall, just across the street from fire headquarters. Branyan said the proposed tower would benefit the town financially and as part of its centralized dispatch system. "We don't have to pay for that," he said. "This started about a year and a half ago, when the proposal went to the Planning Commission. They ruled that it was an appropriate use."

Frank Washkuch Jr., who covers Stratford, can be reached at 330-6287.