Planning Board: AT&T Should Make Call or Leave

Soon AT&T will have to make a call.

AT&T's five-year contract with Hopatcong to build a cellular tower at 173 Old Stanhope Rd. expires Oct. 31, and the Planning Board seemed ready at Tuesday's meeting to offer the land to other carriers if the phone giant doesn't get its act together.

"Their strategy is to lock up the property while they figure out what to do with it," board member Michael Francis said. "We have to get them to do something."

The board gave AT&T yet another extension to provide a site plan Tuesday night. The company had already been granted many extensions, according to town engineer John Ruschke.

"They've just been postponing it and postponing it," he said.

"The town may go out to bid again because there's so many carrier out there and another carrier may look at the site and want to use it."

Mayor Sylvia Petillo wouldn't mind sticking with AT&T, "but they're not moving forward," she said.

Five years ago, AT&T approached the board about using municipal land, Ruschke said. Hopatcong and the phone company agreed to a five-year deal in which AT&T wouldn't start paying rent until a proposed 140-foot pole with 12 antennas was built.

Then Hopatcong waited. And waited. And waited.

"The town was looking to rent that property and get revenue from using that property," Ruschke said. "So [Hopatcong isn't] getting any revenue because [AT&T] isn't using the property."

"They don't have the tower built. Therefore, we can't get revenue. And the town's looking to generate additional revenue, so they want the tower to be built. They need them to built a tower."

Ruschke said AT&T might have a reason for dragging its feet. The land at 173 Old Stanhope Rd. is filled with rock—like much of Hopatcong—and could require a bunch of time and cash.

"There' a lot of rock," he said. "It's takes a lot of earth moving and things. It takes a lot of earthwork. And when there's a lot of work, it takes a lot of money."

The board isn't sure the land would be appealing to another carrier.

"We're not experts," Ruschke said.

"It's all speculation" as to why AT&T hasn't broken ground, he said. "They haven't come to us and told us why they haven't had it done. They haven't told us anything. Essentially, the town went out to bid, [AT&T] was awarded a contract to put the tower there and they just have not moved forward."

The next contract the board enters most likely will be a short-term agreement hinging on action.

"Certainly, they're going to look into what kind of agreement we're going to enter this time instead of having it contingent upon them building a tower first," Ruschke said. "Maybe it'll be contingent on them getting a site plan approved in a certain time frame or [else] the contract is null and void and we'll look for someone else."