FAIR HAVEN – The Borough Council approved a resolution Tuesday that awards a bid for the construction of a 140- foot-tall cell tower on the property of Christ Church United Methodist, Ridge Road.
Omnipoint Communications Inc., Parsippany, was chosen by the council as the highest qualified bidder, at $34,200 a year.
Under the terms of the resolution, Omnipoint was designated as the lead carrier for building and maintaining the “municipal and wireless communications tower and compound.”
Once completed, ownership of the tower and the compound will be turned over to the borough, the ordinance said.
A sublease agreement, acceptable to the borough attorney, will be executed between the town and Omnipoint that provides for the construction and maintenance for the tower and related equipment, for five years, with four successive five-year options for renewal, with increases each year after the first year “as per the bid documents,” according to the ordinance.
Omnipoint will have space on the tower at 140 feet, “or such height as may be mutually agreed upon,” the ordinance said.
New York SMSA Limited Partnership doing business as Verizon Wireless, Basking Ridge, was the second-highest bidder at $33,287 a year. It will be given lease space at 130 feet, and ground space for support equipment with the same options of renewal terms as Omnipoint.
Sprint Spectrum, Mahwah, was the third-highest bidder and will pay $32,400 a year with the same renewal options as the other bidders.
The company will lease space at 120 feet on the tower.
Cingular Wireless, Paramus, was the fourth-highest bidder and will pay $32,000 a year with space at 110 feet on the tower under the same renewal terms as the other companies.
The approval of the ordinance will close the years of struggle that the borough went through to find a site for a cell tower.
During that time, the town was rejected twice by the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) when it sought to exchange borough-owned property for permission to put the tower in Fair Haven Fields.
Because the borough had bought the land in Fair Haven Fields with funds from the state Green Acres Program it could not place a tower there without DEP approval.
The council considered several borough owned properties for the tower, but all met with strong opposition from nearby residents.
The town then entered into negotiations with Christ Church for permission to use a portion of its property for the cell tower.
After the council approved the lease with the church, Mayor Michael Halfacre said it would be a five-year lease with fiveyear renewals provided in it, and revenues would be split on a sliding scale, with the church getting a base amount.
On Tuesday, Halfacre said that since Omnipoint Communications and Verizon were successful bidders for the cell tower, “we expect them to withdraw” their application to place a 140-foot-tall cell tower on the property of the Church of the Nativity, Ridge Road.
The Nativity site is so close to the Christ Church site, he said, it would not make sense to have another tower there.
Representatives of Verizon and Omnipoint applied for a variance to build the tower at Nativity and have made several presentations to the borough’s Zoning Board regarding the application.
As of Tuesday, the companies had not withdrawn their application, according to a Zoning Board staff member.