Town board establishes fund for cellular pole

Town Board members have established a capital reserve fund to stash the $2,400 per month lease payment from Verizon Wireless to a 52-foot pole for cellular equipment on Halcyon Park Water District property at 51 Dachenhausen Lane.

The account was approved during a meeting last week, with Supervisor James Quigley saying the money would be used to offset costs for new projects in the district.

“Included in this resolution is a appropriation from the lease of the cell tower to be placed in the capital reserve fund to be used for future capital improvements in that Halcyon Park Water District,” he said.

Board members approved the Verizon pole last year. The pole will be located in a 10-by-10-foot area next to the existing water district storage tank.

Verizon notes in its application that the facility will be used to fill in service north of a Verizon tower that is about two miles south in Kingston. Company officials report that current equipment is overloaded, with the new equipment expected to provide relief coverage for phones within a 1,000-foot radius.

Officials were told that the water district property was the only site available that could fill in the service gap and the equipment to provide 5G services.

Town Board members in the resolution approving a lease agreement wrote that cell service in the Halcyon Park area is “essential for protecting public health, safety and welfare including the provision of... 911 services.”

In a related resolution, board members also approved a $74,000 contract with Brinnier and Larios for design and bidding of a new Halcyon Park water tank.

The project in December was approved for a $457,200 state Environmental Facilities Corporation grant toward the $762,000 cost of replacing the Halcyon Park Water District storage tank.

The current tank will be replaced by a 120,000-gallon glass-fused-to-steel bolted tank.

Halcyon Park currently has 158 service connections that use an average of 24,607 gallons per day and uses a 75,000-gallon tank that was constructed in 1978.

Officials note that the larger tank is necessary to accommodate a planned state Thruway Authority connection. Under an agreement signed last year the average increase in system use will be 12,000 gallons per day, with peak daily demand by the Thruway estimated at 24,000 gallons per day.