Permanent cell tower for Mahwah firehouse moves forward with state's approval
MAHWAH — A permit has been issued by the state's Department of Environmental Protection that will allow the installation of a permanent cell tower on municipal property off Rozanski Lane.
Engineer Mike Kelly announced the news during Thursday's Township Council meeting. It was the final hurdle delaying installation of a permanent cell tower on Fire Company 3 property to service an estimated 5,300 residents in the 2-mile-wide dead zone.
"This provides the carrier with the ability to order materials and proceed with installing the permanent tower," Kelly said.
The permit has been "forwarded to the appropriate parties" but "there is no timeline as of today," Borough Administrator Ben Kezmarsky said Friday.
"We will certainly be pushing for the work to commence sooner than later," Kezmarsky said.
A tower for the dead zone has been debated off and on since 2005. The current proposal to lease tower space there was approved by the Council in 2017 during the administration of Mayor William Laforet.
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A temporary tower was activated in May 2021, but resident Howard Waldrop, who led the resident push for the tower, said Friday that the permanent tower will be 25 feet taller and provide even better service.
"It's not just cell service," Waldrop said. "It's reaching emergency services."
A long journey
The firehouse has been cited as the best place for a tower to resolve the dead zone by Cingular Wireless in 2006, Homeland Towers in 2013, and by AT&T in 2015 and 2018. The township's February 2019 study by Drexel Engineering reconfirmed that position.
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Still, council members have repeatedly bowed to pressures from nearby residents opposed to the tower on aesthetic, environmental, and health grounds. However, the state has declared cell towers "inherently beneficial," dismissing reports about the health impact of radio frequencies and making it difficult to oppose the construction of towers no matter where they are proposed.
Still, the tower has experienced a variety of setbacks.
January 2020: A six-month delay was caused by a request for an adjudicatory hearing by Antonio and Kathleen Spinella of Masonicus Road. They claimed the DEP had missed protectable wetlands in woods near the firehouse, and that these wetlands required a 150-foot buffer that would essentially eliminate the firehouse as a cell tower site. The hearing was denied in June 2020.
June 2020: The township declared consultant Wireless Edge in breach of contract for failing to find vendors for the tower in the 10 months since it was hired in September 2019. Second consultant Declan O'Scanlon of FSD Enterprises took until November 2020 to secure leases for the temporary tower.
February 2021: Stanley and Yolanda Sun of Aspen Court sued the township, claiming the municipality did not have permission to use their easement across which the the firehouse driveway passed to transport vehicles and equipment for the tower. The suit was settled for $30,000 in December 2021.
April 2021: Masonicus Road resident Jeff Buchak ejected Rockland Electric workers installing cable for the temporary tower across his property for failure to secure permits or pay to use his property.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Mahwah NJ firehouse cell tower to be permanent moving forward
