Warwick cell tower no-go
By Nathan Mayberg
WARWICK — Warwick residents who feared a 150-foot high communications tower would ruin their views will not have to worry for the time being.
AT&T terminated its deal with the Pine Island Fire District to build the cell tower in a letter sent out this month.
The Pine Island Fire District Board of Fire Commissioner subsequently acted last week to rescind its resolution from last year in which it granted itself immunity from Town of Warwick zoning law in an effort to lead the review of the proposed tower.
The Town of Warwick and a group of local residents had filed separate lawsuits against the fire district challenging its legal ability to review a project that it was involved in financially.
The fire district and telephone company had a lease agreement to build the tower on fire district property at 675 County Route 1.
The fire district would have been paid $2,000 a month by AT&T, according to court documents.
Warwick Supervisor Michael Sweeton said the town would withdraw its lawsuit as a result of the developments.
He said the town was notified about the AT&T decision through its attorneys.
The fire district already has a 70-foot high emergency communications tower at the site which it built in 2008 without town approval, but the new tower would include antennas for telecommunications companies.
The fire department contended that state law gave it authority to construct buildings for firefighting and related services, but the law did not address buildings to serve private interested for unrelated purposes.
AT&T's decision 'is a disservice'
“We did receive a letter from AT&T late last week stating they have terminated the agreement with PIFD," Sweeton said in a statement from his office issued Wednesday. "We believe this is unfortunate considering all parties, at our last meeting, agreed to await the NYS DEC decision on lead agency and AT&T stated that once that decision was made they were prepared, as one option, to proceed to the Planning Board and seek a use variance based on a court decision from Rockland County, believing that they would prevail.
"The town stated we would abide by any decision rendered by the appropriate boards, namely the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals," Sweeton added. "We agreed to stay our article 78 proceeding to allow this to occur. We believe that the decision by AT&T to not follow this path and terminate their contract with the PIFD indicates that, from early in the process which started in 2013, AT&T knew the PIFD was not exempt in this instance and perhaps led the Fire District to believe they were in order to achieve AT&T’s own commercial goals.
"This was a disservice to the PIFD, the Town and its residents," Sweeton concluded in his statement. "The Town is moving immediately to withdraw the Article 78 since the contract was terminated and the Fire District moved to rescind their resolution on immunity.”
Sweeton said that the town is still interested in any effort to improve cell phone and emergency communications in the area.
'We're very grateful'Jerry Zimmerman, a Warwick resident who spoke for some of the Pine Island homeowners who filed a suit against the Fire District over the matter, said "we're very grateful that it's over."
He said the whole effort to get the communications tower up through the fire district was an "end run" around the town's zoning code.
"We've been working at this now for two years," he said. "It's been a great frustration and anxiety provoking. Dealing with the Pine Island fire commissioners has been difficult to say the least."
Zimmerman said that when he and others attended their meetings to speak on the issue, the board would go into executive session and leave them waiting for hours.
"There was no effort at conciliation or understanding," he said.
A message left with Pine Island Board of Fire Commissioners Chairman Kenneth Gurda was not returned.
"Those zoning laws are in place for a reason," Zimmerman said. "It's there to protect the entire town."