Sleepy Hollow negotiating lease deal for cell tower
Discussions surrounding a controversial 125-foot-tall cellphone tower proposed for Sleepy Hollow property are not over yet.
After more than a year of heavy debates over the necessity and intrusiveness of the structure, officials decided this week to continue negotiating a deal with petitioner National Wireless Ventures, LLC, despite pushback from half the village board.
Village ordinances list a cell tower as a permitted use on village-owned property, meaning the company does not need a special-use permit to build one just south of the village hall and police station at 1 Thorobred Lane. Trustees still need to vote on the terms of a lease agreement at an upcoming meeting, Village President Stephan Pickett said.
Company CEO Bob Stapleton and other representatives have appeared before trustees several times since first introducing the project in 2015. The tower, they say, will increase bandwidth capacity and improve cell service and data speed in the area for wireless carriers such as AT&T and Verizon.
The cell tower would also service QuadCom, which Police Chief Jim Linane said is necessary to improve radio communication among officers and first responders.
"If we can't communicate with each other, my officers are in jeopardy, and the citizens are in jeopardy," he said.
But several residents and some officials have long been fighting the proposal, saying a cell tower in the heart of the village will disrupt its rural, rustic environment. Trustees previously asked National Wireless to exhaust all technical alternatives that may be less aesthetically intrusive, but company representatives have returned each time saying the cell tower would be the best option.
"The solution (they) keep coming back to is incompatible with our village. You've got to think a little harder," Trustee Scott Finney said. "If you think you're going to get the village behind you in putting a 125-foot tower outside this building, you've been laboring under an illusion."
After discussing the proposal in executive session Monday, however, the village board voted 4-3 to continue lease negotiations, with Pickett breaking a tie among the six trustees. In addition to Finney, trustees Dennis Fudala and Joe Nemec opposed moving the project forward.
Stapleton said National Wireless has conducted research and spoken with experts to determine the cell tower's necessary size and location for improving service.
"From our standpoint, we've given the board as much as we possibly can give at this time," he said. "I think we've stated our case."