>North Jersey towns use cell towers to boost budgets
Overgrown evergreens. Flagless flagpoles. Cell towers are decidedly ugly.
But they are an attractive source of revenue for several North Jersey towns.
Waldwick will collect $220,000 this year from two towers on public property. And the borough is finalizing three new leases, which will add another $91,000 in cell tower revenue for 2010.
Hawthorne raked in $196,000 by the end of last month and has just added two tenants — sending even more cash into the budget next year.
“We’re very happy to have it,” said Eric Maurer, Hawthorne’s borough administrator. “It’s the only revenue that’s going up.”
As the economy sputters along, municipalities are falling victim to purse tightening by residents and businesses. Construction fees in many towns are down as building and remodeling slow. Budget surpluses are thinner and the interest rates banks are paying on them are weaker. Hotel taxes are reduced as travel is less frequent. And state aid is being continually cut.
“I think the times demand it,” said Michael Cerra, senior legislative analyst for the New Jersey State League of Municipalities. “Every nickel that can be raised by alternative revenue sources is a nickel the towns don’t have to go to the taxpayers for.”
The league, he said, has been addressing the issue of cell towers for years through its magazine, conference and half-day seminars.
“This isn’t new,” he said. “Cell towers have been around for 10-plus years. But it stands to reason that in times like these, any option is going to be looked at two or three times.”
As towns turn to wireless companies to plug holes in their budgets, the wireless carriers are just as eager to do business.
“The handsets being sold today are more akin to a mini-computer,” said Brian Josef, director of regulatory affairs for CTIA, known as the International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry. “They have enabled incredible data capabilities.”
These devices — which include iPhones and BlackBerrys — are causing a “flood of demand and consumption,” he said. “The industry is trying to rush to keep up with subscriber usage. As more and more subscribers are using more of the radio frequency spectrum, they need the infrastructure to handle that.”
The Pew Research Center found that one-third of Americans have used a cellphone or smart phone to access the Internet. On a typical day, 19 percent of Americans use the Internet on a mobile device. Two years ago, 11 percent did.
A representative from T-Mobile — which just signed a contract with Waldwick to pay $29,985 next year for space on a tower at the DPW garage — said in a statement that a lot of work goes into deciding where and if a new wireless facility is required.
“T-Mobile analyzes many criteria, including network performance data, customer feedback and real-time drive test data,” Jane Builder, Northeast senior manager of external affairs, said. “Once we’ve determined a new facility is needed, a T-Mobile team evaluates potential sites throughout the area to identify the option from a scientific, zoning, leasing, construction and permitting perspective.”
Builder added that the company partners with local governments whenever possible.
“Communities are able to generate additional revenue, while ensuring a more reliable emergency network to handle the growing number of E911 calls,” she said.
Not every town sold
Still, not all towns are chasing cell company contracts.
Allendale, for instance, has one tower at Crestwood Lake. It brings in $50,000 from five or six carriers leasing space on it. “Fifty thousand dollars on a $12 million budget certainly is not going to save the day,” Mayor Vince Barra said. “But, basically, we have what we can accommodate.”
That tower is now maxed out – meaning that the placement of antennae, spread several feet apart, leave only lower spots available on the tower, which would not prove useful to enhance a carrier’s service.
As for putting up another tower to gain more revenue, Barra said that’s unlikely. “I don’t want to go to the point of having cell towers all over town,” he said. “I don’t think people in town would want that. You don’t want to put it in somebody’s neighborhood.”
There’s no shortage of controversy, with not-in-my-backyard battles being fought across the area.
Ridgewood, which shares a tower with Glen Rock at a wastewater treatment facility off Prospect Street, tried this summer to put up another tower off Lakeview Drive, just east of Goffle Road.
But underwhelming bids from wireless carriers and an outcry from the public derailed the project. “We looked at the bids and the neighbors and decided it just isn’t worth it,” said Chris Rutishauser, village engineer and director of public works.
Quick cash
For the towns lucky enough to have the space and topography for cell towers, it’s easy money.
Mahwah’s 26 square miles of hills and valleys creates a lot of dead zones. For more than 10 years, the township has been getting cash from wireless carriers trying to improve their service. This year, the township earned $200,000 — equivalent to one half of a tax point — by renting space on a water tower and on a monopole at the municipal building.
The water tank alone brought in $160,000 from about a half-dozen carriers that have attached antennae to the structure, located off Campgaw Road.
“I’ve got a water tank that’s been out there for more than 25 years — and it’s still functioning as a water tank,” said Brian Campion, township administrator. “If a company wants to attach a cell antenna to it, it’s found money for the township.”
Wanaque also makes use of its water tower — gaining $130,000 from an antenna on the structure, three antennae on a monopole behind it and two antennae on a flagpole at Borough Hall. The take is equivalent to 2.5 tax points, Borough Administrator Tom Carroll said.
“The flagpole next to the municipal building complements the war memorial beside it,” he said. “It takes up very little property and it’s a significant source of revenue.”
The demand for flawless cell service is so great — and the money so good — that more towns are trying to get in on the payday.
Ramsey is scouting a place for a cell tower to address dead zones on Wyckoff Avenue and Main Street. “We’ve had several carriers approach us,” said Nick Saros, borough administrator. “Our building and grounds committee is reviewing it.
“It’s significant revenue,” he added.
Clifton has been going back and forth with carriers trying to find a suitable site. One company wanted to put equipment on the roof of Firehouse 6, at Broad Street and Van Houten Avenue. The city said no and offered up a building on the old Schultheis Farms property. “We keep an open mind to it,” City Manager Al Greco said.
“As long as you can get by the hysteria and the fear — because there is a lot of misinformation and distorted information about the negative effects they can have on people,” the cell towers can be good for a town, Greco said.
