Cell towers demanded by winter in the Adirondacks

Cell towers demanded by winter
By KIM SMITH DEDAM
Staff Writer - Press Republican
08/24/2007


— SCHROON — Permanent cell-phone service for the Adirondack Northway won’t be in place this winter.
And all three North Country lawmakers called Friday for an emergency fix allowing temporary towers for five months.
They were backed up by a petition signed by thousands of people who want cell service along the Northway.

TOWERS BEFORE APA
Sections of the remote thoroughfare connecting New York City and Montreal have been the scene of serious accidents. Emergency response time is stalled by the nearly complete lack of cellular-phone service.
About 80 miles of scenic Interstate 87 are located inside the environmentally sensitive Adirondack Park, where towers must be “substantially invisible.”
Verizon Wireless put a permanent solution into motion last spring, but it takes time to design and fit 11 towers into the Adirondack Mountains.
“How do you face the public next winter and say, ‘Oh, we’re working on it?” Sen. Betty Little (R-Queensbury) asked rhetorically.
Verizon engineers will have three towers in their network ready for Adirondack Park Agency review next month, Little told a crowd of mostly press people gathered at the South Schroon Rest Area.
“We don’t want to find ourselves without cell service in December saying we needed something else.”

PUSH FOR COWS
Little, Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward (R-Willsboro) and Janet Duprey (R-Peru) wrote a polite but strongly worded letter to Gov. Eliot Spitzer, urging him to allow emergency use of Cells on Wheels, or COWS, which are temporary 60-foot towers that can carry cell-phone transmissions.
Emergency personnel from north Warren County and Essex County Emergency Services Director Ray Thatcher stood behind lawmakers at the press conference.
The officials want at least three COWS parked at rest areas on tractor-trailer beds.
And they want Spitzer to negotiate with state agencies for a five-month, revocable permit from the Adirondack Park Agency.
Temporary tower permits are allowed in certain circumstances for “special” events, Little said.
“We say the special event we have coming is winter.”

PETITION SUPPORT
Standing with the lawmakers, AAA Northway President and Chief Executive Officer James Phelps pointed to two folders containing nearly 5,000 signatures from travelers across 14 New York counties.
“There is not one petition that does not support cell service on the Northway,” Phelps said. “In 17 years at AAA, this issue has gotten the most attention, by far, than anything we’ve brought to their attention before. The response has been overwhelming.”
The petitions will be delivered to Spitzer.
“They’re counting on him to facilitate an interim solution,” Phelps said.

EXISTING STRUCTURES
Earlier this month, APA did approve a temporary cellular tower for Nextel, in the Town of Mayfield.
APA spokesman Keith McKeever said the Mayfield permit was issued “not to exceed 90 days” and was approved because the tower was consistent with Adirondack Park Act law.
“The board (of commissioners) felt the tower was substantially invisible; it has a vegetative backdrop and is 51 feet tall, standing a bit above the tree line. The tower is not skylighted and will hold antennae and panels for Nextel by adding height to an existing pole.”
It took less than 60 days for Nextel to obtain the temporary tower permit, McKeever said.
“Projects that fit existing criteria lend themselves to a fast-track approval process.”

TEMPORARY STATUS
But fitting COWS into tower policy is a different story.
When asked whether there was any way to make COWS “substantially invisible” at the rest areas, Sayward said that was the heart of the problem.
“This is not a permanent fix. Who cares if it’s substantially invisible or not?”
A temporary, revocable permit should exempt the COWS from permanent laws designed to protect the Adirondacks, she said.
“We can’t worry about something that is substantially invisible for something that is temporary.”
Little said the emergency cell towers would be in place for only five months, from Dec. 1 to May 1.
“By then, we’d be out of the icy-road business,” Little said.
The three North Country lawmakers have not met with Spitzer or any of his aides.
But Little spoke with state Homeland Security Commissioner Michael Balboni this week.
“I told him if we didn’t do something now, there won’t be any justifiable excuse.”
Duprey was adamant about finding an interim solution.
“Quite frankly, I don’t care what the COWS look like on the side of the road,” she said. “It’s just not fair to any of us out there traveling (the Northway).”
Phelps said that not one of the 280,000 members of the Northway AAA motorists club has said the temporary towers weren’t a good idea.
“The safety of motorists supercedes all other issues in this.”
The temporary permit is more viable with a long-term solution in the works, Little said.
“We have never asked Verizon to do anything other than follow the (permitting process) in this. But COWS is a different story.”