Wireless communication in Springs will be the hot topic at three meetings this week.
The East Hampton Town Planning Board will hold a public hearing on the application for a 185-foot tower to house emergency and personal wireless communications equipment at Camp Blue Bay at its meeting on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. Meanwhile on Tuesday, the town board will discuss wireless communications in Springs during its 11 a.m. work session and the lobbying group Accabonac Strategies will hold a meeting of its own at 6:30 p.m. to talk about its advocacy for activation of the 150-foot-tall tower on Springs Firehouse grounds.
At the town board meeting, to be held at Town Hall, Planning Department staff and representatives from CityScape, outside consultants engaged by the town for wireless communications planning, will present information and answer questions. The meeting can be watched live on LTV Channel 22, online at LTV, and on the LTV YouTube channel. Those not attending in person can call in with comments or questions at 351-888-6331.
In the ongoing upgrade of the town’s emergency communications infrastructure, Springs still lacks a permanent tower, and the hamlet also has poor personal wireless communications coverage. The town has an agreement allowing a permanent tower at Camp Blue Bay on Flaggy Hole Road, owned by the Girl Scouts of Nassau County. The tower would hold town "emergency services communications equipment, securing a vital link in the townwide communications system used by our emergency responders," Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc wrote in an open letter to the community on Thursday. The planning board's public hearing on that application is set to begin at 7 p.m., after other board business at the beginning of the meeting.
Until the permanent tower is operational a temporary “cell on wheels,” also known as a COW, stands at the parking lot at the end of Gann Road. It houses emergency communications equipment, but not personal wireless equipment.
Accabonac Strategies, headed by Manny Vilar, chairman of East Hampton Town’s Republican Committee, has been pushing for the town to allow activation of a 150-foot-tall tower on Springs Firehouse grounds so that it can be used by personal wireless communications carriers.
The tower at the Springs Firehouse was built in 2015 without site plan approval from the planning board. The zoning board of appeals revoked its building permit, and a State Supreme Court judge dismissed a lawsuit the fire district filed against the Z.B.A. challenging that decision.
The Tuesday evening meeting at the firehouse is the second one about emergency and personal wireless communications in the hamlet to be hosted by Accabonac Strategies. The first, on Sept. 6, drew a large crowd. At the Sept. 6 meeting, Mr. Vilar told the gathering that he would invite the town board to discuss the matter at a subsequent meeting. The board "has NOT responded to the request on September 18th to meet with YOU!" a flyer for the meeting said.
At the town board’s meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 11, Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc addressed a request that he issue an emergency declaration in order to activate the tower at the firehouse. “The question of whether or not the supervisor can declare an emergency just to approve a tower in a specific location raises a number of legal questions I’m not sure I can answer,” he said, “but I think it is a somewhat dubious approach when there is a town policy, and that policy is planning board approval for all tower locations.” He encouraged “anyone who’s concerned about communications in Springs to address the planning board” at Wednesday’s public hearing, “either pro or con.”
In his letter to the community on Thursday, he also further pushed back on the suggestion that he declare a state of emergency in order to activate the tower at the firehouse. "There are legal questions as to whether or not the town supervisor can declare an emergency to approve a tower in a specific location, which I have asked the town attorney to weigh in on," he wrote. "Regardless of the legalities, I believe it is a dubious approach to try to get approval for a tower through such a process when there is a duly delineated town procedure that calls for the Planning Board to review all tower locations for compliance with town codes, and to hear from the public, before issuing, or declining to issue, an approval."
Note: This story has been updated since it first appeared in print and online to reflect the addition of wireless communication in Springs to the East Hampton Town Board's Tuesday, Oct. 18, work session agenda.
