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Illegal 100-foot cell tower in Ridgewood goes unnoticed for months

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file photo Boyd Loving

Illegal 100-foot cell tower in Ridgewood goes unnoticed for months
Monday January 27, 2014, 5:38 PM
BY  CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
The Record

RIDGEWOOD — An illicit cell tower that has popped up behind a fill station in the village managed to go unnoticed by officials for months.

But now that the tower is on the village council’s radar, a pair of summonses has been issued to the owners of both the tower and the property upon which it sits.

“It was just rolled in and it stayed, and nobody has any information about this cell tower,” resident Diane Haderthauer explained to the village council at its most recent meeting.

Haderthauer said she brought the 100-foot-tall cell tower to the village’s attention via email a month after it went up.

Village officials have determined the temporary “test” tower belongs to AT&T and that the company’s testing the viability of installing a second tower at that location.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/Illegal_100-foot_cell_tower_in_Ridgewood_goes_unnoticed_for_months.html#sthash.griwEEcq.dpuf

6 thoughts on “Illegal 100-foot cell tower in Ridgewood goes unnoticed for months

  1. CELL TOWER UPDATE: A review of Village Council meeting minutes dating back to 2008 may provide the answer as to why the mobile AT&T tower was brought in.

    What the meeting minutes reveal is that for years, several cell phone carriers have attempted to construct a new monopole style tower on property owned by the State of NJ on Franklin Turnpike. However, indications are that Village officials objected to this location because of the State’s unwillingness to share site rental revenue with the Village. Instead, several Village owned properties in the Route 17 corridor were offered as alternatives to the State of NJ owned property. Unfortunately for the Village, there were insurmountable technical issues with each of the alternative sites.

    The State’s policy has been to reject construction of cell towers on their properties when objections are made by local government officials, So, due to the objection voiced by Ridgewood officials, a new cell tower can’t be built at the NJDOT facility on Franklin Turnpike (which seems to be the only location that offers the requisite ground space, and meets all technical parameters). Thus, the current holding pattern – and unusual risk taken by AT&T to keep their system functioning (the existing AT&T shared use tower in the construction company’s yard is unable to support equipment required for 4G service).

    It is believed that construction of a new tower on State owned property would result in removal of the existing tower at the construction company yard. The Village would get property tax revenue despite the tower being built on State owned property (most likely more tax revenue – the new structure would be larger).

    However, the Village would not get any of the site rental revenue, and that’s what this seems to all boil down to; we want our cake, and we want to eat it to. Why do Village officials feel the State of NJ should share site rental revenue with them? Would they expect the same of any property owner? Then why the State?

  2. Share with the village because we have to look at the eyesore every day, the entire state property is one big mess. Employees throw there garbage where ever they want, park anywhere, in general it is disgusting.

  3. The same could be said for The Valley Hospital. We look at that mess every day as well. Do we ask for a share of their revenue?


  4. Anonymous:

    The same could be said for The Valley Hospital. We look at that mess every day as well. Do we ask for a share of their revenue?

    Ok we get it. you don’t like Valley. Do you think that for ONCE you could stick to the topic?

  5. #4 there is no mess at Valley,but do stay on topic as#4 said.

  6. No one noticed until what happened — the payola stopped??

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