By KIM SMITH DEDAM
Staff Writer
— 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 sky lighted 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 supersedes 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."
kdedam@pressrepublican.com
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