Requirements not met
By: Lacey Korevec
The Township Committee on Monday rejected bids from Cingular and Sprint to build a new cell tower behind the Cranbury Fire Department Monday.
Committee members said the bids did not meet the requirements set forth in the bid specifications. Township Attorney Trishka Waterbury said she would not say why the requirements were nonconforming.
The township was seeking bids to build the tower after Sprint reported a gap in service and provided a concept plan for building the tower at the firehouse. The proposed tower would have replaced the existing lattice tower that carries radio communications for the Fire Department, police station and rescue squad.
The township required the cell tower to be a three-legged lattice structure no more than 130 feet tall within a 30-foot radius of the existing radio tower. In addition, carrier equipment would have needed to be surrounded by two 8-foot walls on the east and south sides, which are visible from South Main Street. The township also wants the walls to match the firehouse’s façade. Fencing and landscaping also will have to be provided on the north and west sides to allow access to the equipment.
Since the firehouse is in the state-designated Historic District, the tower would have also needed to meet requirements by the state Historic Preservation Office.
"The chief reason they both had to be rejected is because both bids were submitted with exceptions," Township Attorney Trishka Waterbury said Wednesday.
Sprint has also submitted an application to the Zoning Board of Adjustment requesting to build a tower on land owned by Art Hasselbach on Route 130. Committee members said they will not move forward with the municipal tower until the Sprint application is voted on, Mayor Thomas Panconi said Thursday, adding that he does not know when that will happen.
If a cell tower is built on Mr. Hasselbach’s property, it could possibly alleviate the township’s need for additional towers, Mayor Panconi said.
"If it is approved on his property, then we will find out what the cell tower is capable of doing," he said. "The one thing we don’t want to have is a proliferation of towers in Cranbury."
Committeewoman Pari Stave suggested that the township hire a radio broadcast expert to guide the committee through the process if future cell tower issues arise. The expert, she said, would be there to verify information given to them from cellular providers and to answer technical questions like whether or not the township needs a new tower and where other possible locations might be.
"I think that the law and the process is sufficiently complex and dense that we need to have an expert on our team to help guide us through the process of what we do next, whether it means a change, a reconsideration of our current ordinance, whether it means potentially identifying other sites if there is a chance that there would be other applications made to the township," Ms. Stave said Wednesday. "All of that will be done in a very transparent public process."
The committee, however, will not officially consider hiring an expert until the Sprint application before the zoning board is voted on, she said.
There was standing room only at Monday’s committee meeting and many township residents spoke out against the placement of cell tower in the historical district and urged the committee to not consider the firehouse as a possible cell tower site in the future.
Bill Beam, of South Main Street, is a broadcast engineer and, while he doesn’t deal with cellular installation on a daily basis, he believes he has a fairly good understanding of the issues involving the cell tower. He said he hoped his words would help the committee decide to abandon the issue.
"The visual impact is something everyone has made a point about," he said Thursday. "And I feel these towers are not necessarily driven by the needs or the demands of the residents of Cranbury. They are driven by the companies that wish to install these communication equipment and people who are traveling through Cranbury so, as such, we need to consider what the alternatives are in a situation like that."
Like others who spoke, he also asked the committee not only to not build a new tower at the firehouse, but also to relocate the one that is already there so that there are no lattice towers in the township’s Historic District.
Though he was glad to hear that the recent bids were rejected, he said he is still worried about this issue coming up again in the future.
"I did not hear that the project is completely put to rest, so there’s still a level of concern that this could come back again," he said.
Mayor Panconi said the committee is going to take some time to consider the strong opposition voiced by the public and was glad community members shared their feelings with the committee.
"At this point, we’re going to take a step back because the public has come out and voiced very strong opposition to having a cell tower there and we’re going to see how the application that’s currently before the zoning board plays out," he said.

