THETFORD — After a proposed 190-foot cellphone tower off Sawnee Bean Road caused concern among residents last month, town officials have suggested an alternative location: the Thetford Town Forest.

Selectboard members discussed the location during a regularly scheduled virtual meeting Monday night. Board Chairman Nick Clark said AT&T, the company behind the proposed tower, is considering their suggestion and assessing whether it’s feasible to erect a tower within the 176-acre forest.

The tower, which the company has planned to build off Sawnee Bean Road, is intended to improve cellular reception near Routes 113 and 132 as part of the First Responder Network Authority, known as FirstNet, and also improve service for AT&T customers.

Thetford has a telecommunications ordinance that bars cell towers from reaching more than 20 feet above the treetops, but that ordinance is not enough to stop the development, if the Vermont Public Utilities Commission approves the plan, Clark has said.

The company has plans to bring the proposal before the PUC for approval by late June, but Clark said Monday that Thetford officials have urged AT&T to put a “pause” on that meeting until the company’s engineers can evaluate alternative locations, including the forest.

A call to Karen Twomey, a representative for AT&T New England was not returned.

If AT&T does go ahead with Thetford officials’ suggestion, it could reduce some concerns that residents have raised over the tower’s impact on the environment, including possible erosion near the Ompompanoosuc River, and the surrounding landscape, according to Clark.

“The town forest location is just under a mile back from Route 113, and there’s another small ridge or hill in front of it. It’s not nearly as visually impactful,” Clark said in an interview Tuesday. He added that if the tower goes up at the original Sawnee Bean Road location, it could be seen from Town Hall. “In terms of public space, that’s a big difference.”

Along with the visual benefits, board members on Tuesday suggested that the environmental impact might be lessened, since the Town Forest has already been logged.

If AT&T has to pay to use the forest, that could be an additional financial benefit to the town, board members said.

A key reason board members suggested the forest is that it’s the only patch of town-owned land that the board can legally offer as an alternative, according to Selectboard member Li Shen. Other properties owned by the town are being conserved.

“I don’t know what the other options are because that pushes it into private property,” she said in an interview Tuesday, adding that some Thetford residents have come to AT&T to offer their private land as an alternative site.

Though the new proposed location wasn’t met with any objections Monday night, resident Lynda Day Martin said she believes many residents haven’t been able to voice their opinions on the Sawnee Bean Road proposal because they don’t have access to virtual board meetings, which is how meetings are being held during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m really surprised that there’s the possibility of looking at another site,” she said, adding that she hopes a delay in the process of bringing the proposal to the PUC will allow more residents time to give their input.

Others, such as resident Jesse Anderson, spoke after the meeting in cautious support of the forest location.

“It could be less destructive to wildlife and the ecology of the site, it could affect the view shed of substantially fewer people, and it could potentially provide all the same benefits with regard to coverage for citizens and first responders,” Anderson wrote in an email Tuesday. “If all those are true, then I think it would be a good solution.”

Anna Merriman can be reached at amerriman@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.