I-87 Northway NY – The Adirondack Park Agency has given approval for another cell tower for the Northway.
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APA Deputy Director for Regulatory Programs Mark Sengenberger told the APA Board of Commissioners at the recent meeting that cell-towers applications have been coming in “hot and heavy,” with several new applications that could improve coverage in the Adirondack Park.
The latest project approved is a 69-foot tower designed to mimic a pine tree.
The Verizon Wireless array will add service south of Exit 33 along a three-to-four-mile stretch of highway below Poke-o-moonshine Mountain.
The road winds through a narrow gap between steep cliffs in the Town of Chesterfield, leaving the telecommunications company with few available sites, said APA Planner Skip Outcalt.
As with all cell-tower applications, Verizon was required to create computer simulations of the tower to ensure that the array would be “substantially invisible,” as required by the APA’s Towers Policy.
When it came time to vote, only a minority opposed the plan.
“This is one of the most dramatic places in the state of New York, and I think we need to look at alternatives,” Commissioner Dick Booth said. “I think the simulated tree is going to stick out like a sore thumb.”
During the final vote, Department of Economic Development appointee Christopher Walsh joined Booth in opposition. But they were outnumbered, and the project passed 9-2.
Regulatory Programs Committee Chairwoman Lani Ulrich said commissioners need to consider health and safety concerns.
“I don’t want anyone else to die on this road because they don’t have cell service,” she said.
The APA has been under pressure to approve cell-phone towers since a fatal January 2007 crash in which a 63-year-old Brooklyn man died of hypothermia.
The Veiw of the horizon is much more important than lives. If it dosent look like a Pine tree we should let more people die.
Who care how the Cell Tower looks like….
In todays age we need to have Cell Service Every place you Travel…
Lock & Load
This type of thinking is identical to why we have no oil drilling in areas where some extinct bird or moth inhabit the area.
Why we don’t have public votes for U.S. oil drilling is beyond me.
Regarding the cel phone towers, they should accept the reality as much as they do the paved surfaces covering their precious forest! They go hand-in-hand now. Lost lives proved it.
Why the outrage at the cellphone tower mimicking a tree?
This is a win-win situation.
We win because the road will be safer due to cellphone access.
They win because they get to keep the pristine and beautiful look of the magnificent Adirondack mountains.
We get the cellphone. They get the view.
Why the outrage?
kol hakavod to vin
Whom without them there would be nothing
This is a great developement! I travel there very often, during the summer.