Cell-tower applications reach APA

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September 16, 2007

Applications for 3 towers under review

By KIM SMITH DEDAM The Press Republican Sun Sep 16, 2007, 12:00 AM EDT

RAY BROOK -- Applications for three Verizon Wireless cellular-phone towers near I-87 are at the Adirondack Park Agency.

Mark Sengenberger, director of Regulatory Programs at APA, told commissioners Friday that one proposed tower would go on the east side of Route 9 in the Town of Schroon, one would go along Route 9 in North Hudson and one would be in Lewis on the western side of Route 10 between Northway exits 31 and 32.

The applications arrived Thursday, he said, and staff started the review process.

Visual analysis of the towers -- usually done as a photographic composition of tower models superimposed on pictures of the landscape -- is not complete, Sengenberger said.

But Verizon is "well attuned to the information required in agency applications."

Applications for two additional Verizon towers are expected to arrive in October, Sengenberger said.

APA commissioners could review tower proposals for permit approval as early as November.

The I-87 cell-tower project has been in great demand by the traveling public, emergency personnel and legislators.

Verizon Wireless announced last spring it would site 11 towers on lands adjoining the Adirondack Northway, to establish a continuous cell-phone signal covering dead zones on areas of roadway where tragic and deadly accidents have occurred several times in recent years.

The projects are being proposed, Sengenberger said, with an agreement structured in April by Gov. Eliot Spitzer's office and five Adirondack environmental groups.

The agreement states that the towers will not be placed on state land and will be kept substantially invisible in accordance with Adirondack tall-towers policy.

In August, state Sen. Betty Little (R-Queensbury) and Assemblywomen Teresa Sayward (R-Willsboro) and Janet Duprey (R-Plattsburgh) called for a five-month, temporary solution using cells on wheels placed at I-87 rest areas from Schroon Lake north to Lewis.

The temporary towers, the North Country legislators said, would cover some of the dead zones this winter from December to May, while the Verizon cell-tower project is being designed and reviewed.

The temporary plan has not been activated.

WHALEY'S LAST DAY

Friday's board meeting was also the last session for Chairman Ross Whaley, whose four-year term ends this month.

Whaley will retire and leave the position vacant for Spitzer to fill.

Whaley said his last letter as APA chairman would be sent to the Department of Transportation encouraging their efforts to work with APA in redesigning guide rails for use in the Adirondack Park.

DOT has decommissioned the use of rustic rail -- the pre-rusted guide rails that blend into the scenic backdrop.

DOT is redesigning different guide rails for scenic areas, but has already put galvanized steel rails along some roads near Sacandaga Lake, according to the Adirondack Council.

Sengenberger is meeting with DOT next week to discuss the new design.

Sengenberger commended Whaley as "a big-picture thinker, and a fine crafter of details."

APA staff gave their retiring chairman a standing ovation.

kdedam@pressrepublican.com