An informational meeting about emergency and personal wireless communications in Springs is scheduled for Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Springs Firehouse.
Accabonac Strategies, a lobbying group based in Albany, is sponsoring the meeting, which according to its promotional materials and social media posts is to advocate for immediate activation of the 150-foot-tall tower on the firehouse grounds. Manny Vilar, chairman of the East Hampton Town Republican Committee, is the managing director of Accabonac Strategies.
The long-underway upgrade of the town’s emergency communications infrastructure is still lacking a permanent tower in Springs. The hamlet also has poor personal wireless communications coverage, with one resident telling the town board last year that cellphone service there was “a recurring and dangerous nightmare.”
Last year, the town board settled on a 6.9-acre wooded area to site a 185-foot tower for both emergency and personal wireless communications equipment, but an uproar from residents of the neighborhood successfully thwarted that plan. The town ultimately entered into an agreement allowing the siting of a permanent tower at Camp Blue Bay on Flaggy Hole Road, owned by the Girl Scouts of Nassau County. Until that tower is up and 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.
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. Last year, then-Councilman Jeff Bragman suggested that the tower be put to use temporarily for cellphone antennas, but got no support from his colleagues on the town board.
“We are organizing to make a concerted effort to have the Town of East Hampton issue the permits for the communications tower at Springs, whether on a temporary or permanent basis,” Mr. Vilar told The Star last week. The effort is “a public safety issue first and foremost,” he said. “This needs to be resolved now.”
The meeting will offer technical information from communications professionals, an update on the tower at the firehouse, and an opportunity for citizen engagement, including potential litigation against the town. “We’re going to bring in all the professionals — AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, tower providers, the Fire Department — and let everybody explain exactly what it is they can provide, what the safety issues are or are not, and how fast this can be provided,” he said.
Much of emergency responders’ communication is “cellular in addition to radio,” Mr. Vilar said. “Cellular is critically important to the community. When the town says, ‘We put one of these COWs on Gann Road and communication is good now,’ no. Communication is not good. Everybody depends on emergency first response, on both radio and cellular service.”