Controversial cell tower hearing begins

Verizon presents first witness; no rulings made, By Jennifer Knocha Vernon — Verizon Wireless took a step toward its desire to position a cell phone tower at 3 Silver Spruce Road last Wednesday when the company presented its first witness at a hearing before the Land Use Board. The company is on a hunt for five different variances it would need to build the tower. A coalition of local residents, calling themselves Glenwood ACTS, is determined to stop them. Richard Stanzione of Hiering, Dupignac, Stanzione & Dunn from Toms River appeared for Verizon Wireless, while Glenwood ACTS was represented by former Vernon Township mayor, Ira Weiner of Beattie Padovano LLC of Montvale. First, a request to dismiss Weiner started off the hearing with a request that the application be dismissed. “I think they are putting the cart before the horse,” Weiner said. “There are too many problems with this application.” Among the problems he listed is that Silver Spruce is a private road, owned in part by five different people, which means that the application takes into consideration property Verizon doesn’t own. “Without consent of all the owners, you can have no right to do that,” he said. He also pointed out that significant work has already been done on the property without any permits. This had previously been reported to the town, which found problems with retaining walls and driveways. “In fact, Louis Kneip (the township engineer) has suggested doing geothermal scans, because he’s not sure what’s under the road they are planning to use,” Weiner said. After Stanzione was allowed to speak in his client’s defense, he pointed out that all of these issues, while relevant, don’t fall under the jurisdiction of the Land Use Board. “I’ve been through applications that take as little at 30 minutes, and as long as 10 years,” he said. “I hope this one doesn’t take that long.” The board did not dismiss the case. Stanzione was allowed to proceed. Gaps in cell service The first witness was Edward Yorke of PierCon Solutions in Lincoln Park, a radio frequency engineer, who had been brought in by Verizon in December of 2008 to investigate a service gap in the Lake Wallkill area. He found gaps in service along Lake Wallkill Road, Glenwood Road and Campbell Road. The root of the problem, according to Yorke, is the geography of Vernon. The area is a bowl, geographically, surrounded by mountains, which weakens signals from cell towers around the area. “It’s a clear-cut situation,” he said. “There are coverage gaps. There are some big mountains out there.” Once the service gap was established, according to Yorke, the next step for Verizon is to figure out how to resolve it. Verizon began approaching local property owners about placing a tower in various locations around the bowl, which stretches about one mile from east to west and 2.5 miles from north to south. While they sent letters to various local businesses and groups, including Woodland Kennels, Camp Sussex and the local ambulance squad, the only landowner who replied was Joseph Wallace, who owns the property at Silver Spruce Drive. Next, Verizon needed to figure out how big a cell tower it would need. According to Yorke, in order for the tower to pick up a consistent signal, he called for a 140-foot tower, which is 60 feet in excess of the town ordnance. More variances needed The other variances required are for setbacks from Silver Spruce Road and from the neighboring properties, a use variance for putting a tower in a residential zone and attempting to build on an undersized lot. When asked by township attorney Patrick McNamara if there had been complaints about lack of service, he admitted that there were none. But, Yorke said, he’d personally experienced dropped calls while riding through the area. This wasn’t the experience of township engineer Louis Kneip, who said that he’d traveled through the area without any problems, but Yorke said that the problems may not be consistent. Consistency isn’t an issue for Tim DeGroot, who lives along Route 565 and is confused as to why the tower is needed at all. “I get cell phone service in my house,” he said. “I get cell service in my basement, in my upstairs. Why do I need this?”