Verizon faces more questions than anticipated at local meeting in Georgetown

WASHINGTON – Georgetown’s monthly Advisory Neighborhood Commission dissolved into sharp questions as Verizon tried to push forward with an antenna that had the potential to disrupt residents and businesses on M Street.

The meeting began sharply at 6:30 pm, on Oct. 1, with the presiding chair, Joe Gibbons, bringing order to the room. The meeting was hosted at the Georgetown Visitation School, in their Heritage Room on the second floor.

On the agenda was a multitude of issues ranging from police reports to permitting an installation of Verizon antennas on building in Georgetown. The sheer scope of the issues was apparent as the Gibbons tried to push through the agenda quickly, but immediately got bogged down by comments and questions from those on the ANC 2E Board, as well as people in the audience.

The biggest focus of the meeting was the proposed adoption of a resolution about permitting Verizon’s installation of two new antennas at 2715 M St. NW.

There are “zero antennas” in Washington, Gibbons said. And “how it looks – that’s what our concern is,” he added, which became very clear as the meeting progressed.

Things began to get more and more heated as the representative from Verizon presented on the antenna project. A community leader and board member of Citizens Association of Georgetown, Elsa Santoyo, spoke heatedly about the preservation of trees, saying at one point that those living in Georgetown were “very proud about (their) trees.”

The president of the board of association, Pamla Moore, was also in attendance at the meeting but did not speak much throughout, leaving the speaking to Santoyo.

Verizon wanted to push forward with a 5G antenna, an antenna that would not work with any phones currently for sale. Santoyo continued to question the point of the antenna’s, at one point asking, “Just what are you testing exactly?”

During the questioning, the representative for Verizon said repeatedly that he didn’t know when pushed for more answers. David Weissmann, northeast U.S. media relations for Verizon answered the question when asked, saying that the representative probably meant “towers built for 4G” and that Verizon had launched 5G towers in “Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento” but not Washington.

The honest answer was commended by Gibbons, but ultimately was a disappointment for the audience who were looking for more active answers.

The resolution went nowhere as the board agreed to simply not have a vote as there wasn’t enough information at that time.

This active participation of the community isn’t a fluke.

Georgetown Main Street’s executive director and another presenter at the meeting, Jessie Himmelrich, said that generally she was “giving updates every month, updates on events, updates on the community” and that the meetings took roughly the same amount of time each week, finishing in about two hours.

Though the majority of the things dealt with were issues, one point was of celebration: A Trader Joe’s is going in on Wisconsin Avenue NW and sales tax on tampons and pads has been removed, which prompted claps and a lone cheer from the audience.