Cell service coming to river valley?

By TOM KANE

RIVER VALLEY — They can’t hear you now, nor could they ever flip a cell phone open and make a call from most locations near the Upper Delaware River.

Wireless service from Long Eddy to Barryville, NY has never existed, though residents of the river valley have been expecting it to come for the last four years. Several companies have come to a number of towns with plans to set up towers and find carriers who would provide the actual service, but little if anything has happened.

The need for a cell tower was dramatically demonstrated in January 2001 when a Damascus school bus carrying elementary students collided with a propane truck on the narrow section of River Road, north of the Cochecton-Damascus bridge. With no cell service in that area, the driver could not notify the school that the bus was delayed and that no one was injured. Concerned parents, unaware of the accident, grew anxious when they called the school and officials knew nothing about the accident or the fate of the children.

“Cell phone service is drastically needed along the river if we’re going to avoid incidents like this,” said Bill Gager, chairman of the Damascus Township Board, at the time of the incident.

Residents are also nervous if floods like the ones that occurred in the last year might occur again, with no cell phone service to help in an emergency.

A cell tower may be coming

It appears that cell phone service may be coming to a section of the river valley with the expected placement of a 300-foot tower by Lander’s River Trips in the Town of Tusten.

“I’m waiting for the bids to come in to erect a 300-feet tower that will be 200 feet deeper into the woods than the current tower, which is 80 feet high,” owner Richard Lander said.

The tower will be on a hill behind the Tusten town barn on the property of Royal Oak Estates, he said.

“The carriers will most likely be Cellular One or Verizon,” he said. “The Tusten ambulance will also be on the tower.”

It’s finally happening after two years of talking, he said.

A tower is one thing—a carrier is quite another

Tower companies do not generally provide carrier service. So far, permits have been issued and at least two towers erected, but still there is no service because there are no carriers on the towers.

One company had all the permits to erect a tower in Lookout, PA in March 2003 but did not build when they found carriers could not get enough users to make it profitable. So it was never built.

Another company wanted to build a tower in Damascus Township but never followed through. The reason was not clear to township officials.

The Town of Highland in New York has two real-time towers in the air now, but no carriers as of yet.

“The 180-foot tower on Proctor Road on land owned by the Highland Lake Rod and Gun Club, Inc. now carries the county DPW and the county emergency,” said Joseph McDonald, deputy supervisor of the Town of Highland. “It also carries the town highway department, ambulance service and fire department ,but no common carrier.”

The company that built the tower in 2001 owed the town over $3,000 in back fees but paid it recently, McDonald said.

A second tower in Highland, a 240-foot-tall tower on Clark Road in Eldred, was built by Crown Atlantic, LLC. The company has agreed to provide a carrier by October 2005.

“If they don’t, we may just tell them to take the tower down,” McDonald said.

The tower has been built on property owned by Highland Field and Stream Club, Inc.

So who’s going after carriers for this tower if the company doesn’t?

“We are,” McDonald said.

Shohola Township had a company affiliated with Verizon approach the planning board about six months ago, but they never came back after the township insisted that the company take the tower down if the technology makes it obsolete.

Why is it so difficult to get carriers?

“There are a number of factors that influence a company not to take on serving an area,” said John O’Malley, Verizon Wireless spokesman. “Since the technology is ‘line of sight,’ it might not fit into our network. We just can’t provide service because somebody built a tower. Geography is a huge factor. In a hilly area, like in your valley, it would take many towers. We can’t offer ubiquitous service. It’s a huge investment. In upstate New York my company is spending $170 million this year. We spend a billion dollars every 90 days throughout the nation. We have to prioritize. It may not pay to be in a certain area.”