If you've ever stood in Monument Square trying to send a text that just won't go through, Concord officials think they've found the fix: bolt an LTE transmitter onto the Umbrella Arts Center and blast Verizon signal across downtown. The Select Board unanimously backed the idea. Not everyone in town is convinced it's that simple.

The pitch: turn one building into a signal cannon.

At its July 6 meeting, the board heard Verizon's case for mounting a 700 MHz LTE transmitter on the town-owned arts center at 40 Stow Street — prime real estate, both for foot traffic and, apparently, for radio waves. Town cell consultant Ivan Pagacik didn't undersell it, telling the board the antenna should "saturate the downtown area" with signal strong enough to punch through building walls. He compared the expected coverage to a temporary transmitter Verizon set up for the town's 250th anniversary last year — proof, in his telling, that the concept already works.

Where you'd actually feel the difference.

Coverage maps showed improvement around Monument Square, Thoreau Depot, Emerson Field, and parts of Minute Man National Historical Park. The catch: it fades out near Elm Street, and some North Bridge visitors would still be stuck with weak bars. Also worth noting — this whole upgrade is exclusively for Verizon customers, so AT&T users hoping to piggyback on the good news should keep reading.

Not everyone's cheering.

Resident Gail Hire, who previously led the charge against a cell zoning overhaul that narrowly failed at Town Meeting this spring, wasn't thrilled with how this one came together either. "It seems like the process has gone forward kind of behind closed doors," she told the board, also raising concerns about equipment noise. Don Kupka, a nearby Umbrella abutter who also happens to chair the Finance Committee — though he was clear he was speaking for himself, not the committee — pushed on a more personal question: how do officials know cell radiation "will not be an issue" for residents of the Emerson Annex, the tallest residential building right next door?

Why a small fix wouldn't cut it here.

Deputy Town Manager Megan Zammuto acknowledged small-cell technology is part of Concord's broader wireless strategy, but said the town's practice of burying utility lines underground actually limits where those smaller, low-power transmitters can even go. Her verdict: small-cell systems are "not as helpful in areas where there are significant gaps" — which is exactly why the town landed on something bigger for downtown instead.

Meanwhile, other carriers aren't sitting still either.

AT&T customers are already getting help from low-power systems recently approved on Sudbury Road, and a planned tower at the old town landfill on Walden Street — which could eventually serve multiple carriers and even Concord-Carlisle High School — is working its way through its own separate review.

Verizon still needs sign-off from the Zoning Board of Appeals and Planning Board, plus state and federal regulatory reviews, before any construction can start — with a summer 2027 start date on the table if everything clears. Select Board Chair Wendy Rovelli made the board's position clear regardless of the pushback: "We know that's been contentious and we just want to go on record as a Select Board saying, 'We want to continue to pursue this avenue and this solution.'" No ZBA hearing date has been set yet.