Politics & Government

T-Mobile Hearing Postponed Because of Misunderstanding, Escrow Shortage

A lack of funds in an escrow account means the board of adjustment was unable to hear additional testimony at Tuesday's hearing.

Much to the chagrin of about 40 residents at Tuesday’s board of adjustment meeting, the hearing on the at the was postponed until May 3 because of a misunderstanding and a lack of money to pay the experts.

According to board of adjustment chairman William Vornehm, the township has its own experts for these hearings who are paid for by an escrow fund that T-Mobile sets up through the township.

“But it was not replenished enough to pay the experts,” he said.

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Because of that, Vornehm said, T-Mobile was told that the board experts would not be presenting and testimony would not be heard from some of the applicant’s experts.

“They took that to mean the meeting was canceled,” he said.

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So representatives from T-Mobile did not show for the meeting, and the application has been pushed for a next hearing May 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the municipal complex.

Resident Andrew Leven asked if there would be the possibility of denying the application in this kind of case.

“If T-Mobile does not meet its obligation to gross up this expert witness fund, would that be a basis to deny the application?” he asked.

Board attorney Lawrence Vastola said state statute does not give the board the ability to do that.

Resident Jeff Foose asked if there was going to be any consideration given to the recent AT&T and T-Mobile merger.

“They’ve been advised to address that issue,” Vastola said.

In addition, Vastola said, a representative from T-Mobile said the merger is two years away and won’t affect the application, but the company was stil told to be prepared to discuss the topic.

Vastola recommended that he be allowed by the board to draft a letter to send to T-Mobile’s attorney, saying that if the escrow is not replenished and testimonial reports are not submitted at least 10 days before a hearing, the case will be decided by the testimony that has already been given.

“The escrow issue was raised at the last meeting, and it had been raised with them by the township’s staff prior to that,” he said. “Then I received a call from [township planner] Scarlett [Doyle] telling me that they still hadn’t paid the escrow.”

Vastola said he called the T-Mobile attorney to say that the money must be paid.

At this point, Vastola said, there is a deficiency in the escrow account in excess of $5,000.

But Vastola said the statute requiring the escrow fund for experts representing the township does not have any kind of punitive language, which he has recommended be changed by the township for the future.

“If the applicant fails to pay the escrow, the ordinance does not say the application will be dismissed, but that if the escrow is deficient, those members of the staff charged with reviewing the application stop reviewing it,” he said.

And because of the currently deficient escrow, Vastola said, engineer reporting to the township Hank Menkes and a planner representing the township will not be reviewing the reports.

“So the board could not hear testimony from the radio frequency expert,” he said. “And T-Mobile interpreted that we would not hear the last two witnesses, so they wouldn’t come to the meeting.”

Vastola said the issue of a lack of funding and non-reviewed reports is also unfair to the residents.

“It is not fair to the residents who gave up their time to come here,” he said.

There was no objection from the board, and Vastola said he would draft a letter and submit it to the rest of the board for approval before sending it out.

Vornehm said the fire department is a co-applicant on the T-Mobile application now, so when talking about the escrow fund, the two entities have to deal with it.

Vastola said he was told by the T-Mobile attorney that there was some confusion about what is owed for the escrow fund.

“I asked what’s the problem, does T-Mobile need a loan,” he said. “But I’m going to get in touch with the person who is responsible for administering the escrow fund so I can present the information to the T-Mobile attorney and make sure it is dealt with.”

The application from T-Mobile was originally introduced in August for a 125-foot cell tower at the Green Knoll Volunteer Fire Company on North Bridge Street, with six directional antennas and two GPS antennas within the tower.

Recent testimony has centered on noise from the flag at the top of the pole as well as an emergency generator that could be brought to the site, among other similar issues.


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