NEXTEL CONCEALS EXISTING
LAKE GEORGE CELL SERVICE FROM ADIRONDACK PARK AGENCY
Compounds Deception
with Arrogance by Publishing
Map Claiming Controversial Proposed 'Frankenpine' Tower in
Fort Ann is Already Built and Operating
For more information:
John F. Sheehan, Communications Director
518-432-1770 (w)
518-441-1340 (cell)
Released, Wednesday, January
19, 2005
PILOT KNOB, N.Y. - With an Adirondack
Park Agency hearing set to begin Monday on a controversial plan
by NEXTEL to build a fake-pine-tree cell tower on a ridge above
Lake George, the Adirondack Council announced its discovery today
of an existing NEXTEL cell phone transmitter directly across
the lake from the proposed new site.
"It appears NEXTEL has been misleading the Park Agency for
a long time about this," said Brian L. Houseal, Executive
Director of the Adirondack Council, the Park's largest environmental
advocacy organization. "None of the maps in NEXTEL's application,
and none of the information submitted for Monday's hearing, show
the cell transmitter on the Sagamore Resort Golf Course. And
yet, our testing shows that the existing transmitter appears
to provide coverage to areas that NEXTEL claims it can only reach
by building a new tower on a new site, across the lake in Pilot
Knob.
"I can't wait to hear how NEXTEL tries to explain why it
concealed the existence of the Sagamore Golf Course transmitter
from the APA's Administrative Law Judge and the APA's commissioners.
So this is how NEXTEL gets it 'DONE?'" he said, poking fun
at the company's national television advertising campaign.
At the same time, the Adirondack Council discovered that NEXTEL
has published maps of its coverage area that show the Pilot Knob
tower - the subject of Monday's hearing - was already built and
operating.
"That is a pretty arrogant thing to do on the eve of the
public hearing that will determine whether you get permission
to build a 'Frankenpine' on one of the Park's most scenic landscapes,"
Houseal said of the fake-pine-tree proposal. "It is appalling
to see a Virginia company come into New York's greatest wilderness
park and behave this way. They are essentially telling their
customers that the APA's approval is merely a formality, and
thus the public hearing is merely a formality.
"We sincerely hope the Park Agency will take this opportunity
to send a clear message to NEXTEL, and to anyone else who wants
to build new towers on pristine locations inside the Adirondack
Park - that the Park's ecological health and wild character are
more important than one company's expansion plans," he concluded.
The Adirondack Council's mission is to ensure the ecological
integrity and wild character of the Adirondack Park. Founded
in 1975, the Council is a privately funded not-for-profit organization
with 18,000 members. The Council carries out its missions through
research, education, advocacy and legal action.
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