Town Board Special Meetings, Jan 26 & 27

This article appeared in the Townsman, January 29 edition

Woodstock, January 26 & 27

Councilwoman Liz Simonson's effort to expand cell phone service in Woodstock by permitting an antenna on the 300-foot tower on Overlook Mountain (the so-called RNN tower, although RNN no longer uses it for broadcasting a signal) was met with resistance at the special meeting of the Woodstock town board. As far as supervisor Jeff Moran is concerned, the town boards primary objective "is to get service to the areas of the town not currently served, "not to jump ahead based on non-professional opinion to "legalize" the RNN tower with merely a hope that it will produce the intended result.

Simonson, who had led the charge eleven years ago to craft an amendment to the zoning law that prohibits personal wireless (cell phone) service towers and antenna in certain areas of the town, including Overlook, admitted that her current position was a complete turn around. Aiding her new position was George ("Jerry") Washington, the retired IBMer, who in the past has given town boards Power Point presentations on matters ranging from traffic to buried fuel tanks. Washington provided a 21-page report to the town, which he claimed showed conclusively that the RNN tower would fill many gaps in cell service. Washington also claimed that as a "commercial pilot" he appreciated the red warning light that beams from the tower.

In a sharp turn around for Washington, his latest report indicates that the two-year old cell tower on California Quarry provided a "rich" signal for the business district and areas of the town east of the Bear Café. Washington in conjunction with Simonson and others had issued a report in 2004 that claimed the Quarry site would provide the hamlet business district with "limited in-building service." The fact that people can now make cell phone calls from the hamlet's basements perhaps is what cooled supervisor Moran to Washington's latest science.

Simonson, perhaps in anticipation of the town board's charging ahead with her proposal to permit a cell installation on the RNN tower, invited the Town's land-use attorney, Drayton Grant, to the meeting to help unravel the zoning knot Simonson had tied eleven years previous.

Not only does the current law prohibit cell towers on Overlook, according to a memo sent by Grant to the town board in 2008,the RNN tower "is no longer a legal non-conforming use." In 1984 the Woodstock Zoning Board of Appeals, in what was then an extremely controversial decision, granted utility status to the RNN tower because it would be a television broadcasting facility, a decision that permitted the tower's construction. The tower ceased broadcasting a television signal in 2004, but now supports several other radio antenna serving Ulster County 911, ham radio, New York State Electric and Gas, and a relay dish for RNN. Technically, the Town if it so wished could begin steps to see the tower dismantled, in the opinion of some.

That seems unlikely, especially since emergency response providers are using it. But it added enough confusion to the matter that Simonson at one point turned to Grant and asked her to "tell us where to go." Grant, careful to avoid making policy for the Town, responded, "Tell me the destination and I will figure out the route." She went on to advise the board that if it has a serious interest in preserving the tower that "maybe we should build a more secure legal foundation" for it, further stating that at present the tower stands in a "legal penumbra."

Grant's 2008 memo also advised, "First, the town board should investigate to make sure of the facts," before it goes through the legal expense of changing the zoning law to accommodate a cell service antenna on the tower. Councilwoman Terrie Rosenblum thought it would be wise to see if adding height to the California Quarry tower might help expand service to any appreciable degree, an idea loathe to councilman Chris Collins, who recalled the bitter battle with the neighbors over that tower.

Ed Zellefrow, a qualified radio engineer visiting from the neighboring town of Olive, politely suggested to the town board that rather than depend on Washington's expertise that it contact carriers such as ATT and Verizon and have their professionals test the RNN tower site before making any decisions. That appears to be the direction the board will take, despite grumblings from Simonson that her attempts by phone and email to get contacts for those companies from Jeff Staley, the manager of Woodstock's municipal tower in California Quarry, have gone unanswered.

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The January 27 special meeting of the town board to receive a status report from councilman Chris Collins on his three-year endeavor to enact a comprehensive plan for the Town of Woodstock made a desultory five-page progress into the 23-page document. Collins began the meeting by stating his hope for "tweaking without major surgery" the executive summary of the 160-page report written toward the end of 1999 and delivered to the town board after a three-year delay.

Previous town board members found the document too poorly written to attach their names to it. Although many of its recommendations had been enacted over the years, the document itself gathered dust. In 2005 Collins won a seat on the town board after identifying the un-adopted comprehensive plan as a major issue, and has labored over it since January 2006. In 2008 the town board unanimously decided to chuck the wordy tome, and adopt the more concise executive summary, but only after some tinkering. Even this severe curtailment has offered no fast track, as Collins admitted at the meeting to reviewing only its first ten pages.

On page three the board unanimously agreed to language concerning sustaining the "cultural and economic vitality of the community" by maintaining connections with "arts communities and entrepreneurs throughout the region," the idea being that such connection would bring more people to the town. Later in the discussion councilman Jay Wenk felt the plan should suggest the control of population, expressing his feeling that there were too many people around here. He offered no guidance for how that suggestion should read.

The meeting, which had begun at four-thirty, ended promptly at 6:00 PM so that the board could enter into an executive session to interview a candidate to replace Patrick Tripp on the Board of Assessment Review, and to discuss a "personnel matter pertaining to animal control."