The deal Blue Wireless proposed to the Lakewood Village, NY fire department is pretty sweet: $1,375 a month or $16,500 a year to erect a tower on the fire department’s property. The money would provide income for the fire department’s capital improvement fund. So it’s no wonder that Jack Knowlton, fire company president, told the town’s board meeting Wednesday that the fire company had gone through its attorney and agreed to sign a tentative lease with Blue Wireless. “We feel it would be an asset to the fire department,” he said. “We hope the village allows it.”
Not so fast there. According to the Jamesville, NY Post-Journal, Mayor Cara Birrittieri told Matthew Kerwin, the Barclay Damon, LLP lawyer out of Syracuse who’s representing the tower company, that a lot must be done before the board could indicate support for a Blue Wireless tower. The mayor has been down this road before. Blue Wireless previously made a similar request but at a different location in town and the locals rejected the plan. What’s new is this location.continue reading
The Post-Journal notes that David Wordelmann, past mayor, had said that the fire department site was the best alternative. In October, nearly 75 residents showed up at the Lakewood Zoning Board of Appeals to protest the original application that named a First Street location as the proposed site, and there’s hope that the new location will produce a more positive outcome for Blue Wireless. And for the fire department.
“We definitely want to go forward with that tower on our land,” said Kurt Hallberg, fire chief during a follow up Wednesday with The Post-Journal. He said that the proposed site is not close to homes or businesses. The fire department owns 14 acres. “It’s probably the most unobtrusive spot in the village,” Hallberg said.
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