Metro PCS to Keep Antenna at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post

A cell phone provider is sticking with its plan to construct a communications facility at the on Winslow Place.

Metro PCS, at the behest of the Zoning Board of Adjustment, inquired into whether a Borough site was available, but was told by borough administrator Joseph D'Arco that the borough attorney is still looking into it, attorney Constantine Stamos said Thursday.

"This application was filed in October," Stamos said. "It's obviously no big secret."

Noelle Moeller was responsible for picking a site for the project. She said Metro PCS wouldn't be able to lease without a public bid.

Moeller regularly looks for bid requests from municipalities, and hasn't seen one from Paramus since the Zoning Board to look into leasing from the Borough on March 9.

"In our eyes we can't lease something that's not out to bid, legally," she said.

That no doubt came as a relief to members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post who attended the Zoning Board meeting. 

Joseph Brooks is a past commander of the VFW. He said it was critical that Metro PCS be allowed to lease the tower from them.

"We're hurting right now," Brooks said of the VFW. "We may not be able to keep our building if we don't get this cell tower."

The VFW is one of two service organizations in Paramus that maintains its own building, Brooks said. The veterans group has struggled to pay its utilities bills as fuel costs have risen.

Metro PCS is proposing a 100-foot antenna at the site designed to look like a flagpole. David Karlebach was the planner for the project.

The antenna will mostly be visible from state highways, Karlebach said.

"I do not find this to be adverse to the residential community whatsoever," he said.

The Zoning Board of Adjustment would have voted on the application Thursday night, but only five members were in attendance, short of the full complement of seven. Since the application needs five affirmative votes to be approved, Stamos elected to delay the vote until the full board is available.

That vote is scheduled for May 17.