The upper section of the Delaware River flows through New York and Pennsylvania and currently bans cell towers along its route. However, as the Pocono Record reports, the view that is uncluttered by communications equipment is raising safety concerns.
Members of the Upper Delaware Council (UDC) which represents towns that occupy the 73.4 mile corridor prohibiting cell towers recently met to discuss the situation. Any changes to current operating procedures need to meet the terms of the organization’s River Management Plan (RMP). The RMP distinguishes between Major and Minor improvements. The UDC determined that cell towers would qualify as Minor, making it easier to move forward with Special Use allowances.
The RMP charter, written in the 1980’s, pre-dates cell towers, but defines a Minor Commercial Development as one occupying under 2,000 square feet and employing fewer than five people. The Town of Tusten, NY has already explored zoning ordinance variations that would allow it to construct a cell tower near the Delaware River in response to safety concerns. The source notes that it would be impossible to say whether or not better communications could have saved drowning victims over the years, but popular opinion seems to be shifting in favor of safety over scenery.
Kerry Engelhardt, the UDC’s Resources and Land Use Specialist, noted that the goals of the RMP are to maintain scenic vistas, prevent river recreational accidents and minimize hazards, and to provide better emergency communication and better river information. The RMP suggests a “24-hour telephone information system,” which Engelhardt said would be useless if people can’t use their cell phones to connect to it.
Fellow UDC member Fred Peckham, representing Hancock, said, “I think there will come a time when we will [have] a few cell towers in the valley for safety reasons. We talked about call boxes, this and that, but I think the majority of people who use the corridor, use the river, would want cell phones. It’s going to happen,” he continued. “We get more and more people coming in, saying, ‘Where’s the cell towers?’ They’re albatrosses. They’re not fun to look at but they are a necessity.”
“We have to accommodate some form of communication for safety reasons,” Aaron Robinson, UDC member from Shohola Township, told the Record. “We push life jackets. The next best thing to life jackets is to be able to report an incident and you can’t. You flat out can’t communicate with the safety people. Cops can talk to cops. Safety people can talk to safety people. You, as an individual, cannot contact anyone.”
Tusten representative, Susan Sullivan, succinctly noted that cell towers “…are a necessary evil, we have to have them.”
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