HARMONY — The dead zones are gone.
Cellphone users living in and passing through the Somerset County towns of Harmony and Cambridge are now able to place and receive calls ever since a new U.S. Cellular tower went up on Sugar Hill Road in Harmony a couple weeks ago. The tower was erected on leased land about a mile off Route 150 north of Harmony village.
Tracy Morrison at Morrison’s Garage in Harmony village said he isn’t giving up the business landline just yet, but is pleased to finally have cell service. An ancient pay phone still hangs on the wall outside, “inactive” for a good 10-15 years.
“I’m very pleased that we have cell service now, and it’s good coverage,” Morrison said.
Morrison said there were a couple of spots in Harmony where people had to drive to in order to make cellphone calls. One was off Route 150, the Athens Road, by the Hair Shack salon. The other was at a farm on Chadbourne Road.
“Everybody had to go to those two spots to call or it was going to fade on you,” Morrison said.
Morrison said he has had a cellphone, but used it more when he was out of town than when he was in town. He said there has been no cell service for the many visitors to the annual Harmony Labor Day Free Fair and no service for area loggers and truckers.
“Communication is going to be so much better for the area,” he said.
Over at the Cambridge General Store & Restaurant just up the road from Harmony, men having coffee and breakfast on a recent morning had conflicting views about the arrival of cell service.
Larry Brennick and Michael Watson, didn’t see much use for the devices, saying people texting and talking on cellphones is antisocial.
“It’s destroying face-to-face communication,” Watson said.
Others such as Robert Folsom, the fire chief in Cambridge, said cell service is an essential tool when it comes to emergency services in rural Maine, where radio service from the communications center in Skowhegan some 25 miles isn’t always reliable.
“Our radio coverage here from Somerset County has always been spotty at best,” Folsom said.
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