UDC calls for cell tower camouflage

By DAVID HULSE

NARROWSBURG — If it’s to be built, a proposed communications tower in the Lackawaxen hamlet should be disguised to look like a 180-foot-tall Eastern white pine tree, according to the Upper Delaware Council (UDC).

Officials say they are not opposed on principle to the towers, for which there has been a recent spate of applications around the river valley, but believe that they should be as non-intrusive visually, as possible.

The UDC on May 3 approved comments on a pending conditional zoning use application by Guaranty Towers, which is before the Lackawaxen Township Supervisors.

UDC Executive Director Bill Douglass said the staff comments were consistent with recent UDC comments on a proposed tower being considered in the New York Town of Delaware.

UDC Project Review Committee chair Harold Roeder of Delaware said he believes the towers are an inevitable change, but that local governments around the valley do have options in dealing with them. He recommended the council sponsor a seminar for town planners to get the word out on how to go about it. “There are things that the towns can do,” he said.

Some of the UDC comments propose: disguising the tower, keeping its lighting use to a minimum, banning any advertising on the tower and assuring lightning protection for nearby Lackawaxen Fire Department recreational facilities.

The Lackawaxen supervisors were scheduled to consider the application at a May 9 public hearing.

In other business last week, NPS Upper Delaware Superintendent Sandra Schultz reported that the NPS has narrowed to one its list of engineering and architectural firms for the design work on the NPS visitor center to be constructed near the Hawks Nest on Route 97. Schultz said the agency is doing reference checks and expects the firm to be “on board,” by June.