ALBANY COUNTY —Hilltown residents spoke to the Albany County Legislature Monday night, asking that towers proposed by the sheriff not be built in places that would mar important Helderberg views.

In February, without a public hearing and by unanimous vote, the legislature had passed a resolution stating that towers for the sheriff’s countywide communication system would be “immune from local regulations.”

The lawmakers on Monday applauded each of the half-dozen speakers, even those who called their resolution disrespectful.

“That’s what they do when someone speaks; they clap,” Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple told The Enterprise the next day, dismissing the idea that the tide was turning.

“We went through the planning process in both towns and were good to go,” he said of Berne and Rensselaerville. New towers — of metal lattice standing 180 feet tall — are planned for Edwards Hill Road in Rensselaerville and Jansen Lane in Berne.

Apple said of the county’s resolution to squash home rule, “We passed the legislation because the town officials were getting blowback.”

The resolution states, “Local land use regulation would negatively impact development of the Project in that it could delay or prohibit development of system infrastructure which, in turn, would deprive Albany County’s public safety agencies, law enforcement and emergency responders of adequate basic and emergency communications.”

Chris Smith of East Berne, a Democrat who represents District 39, including both Berne and Rensselaerville, told The Enterprise he had voted for the resolution. “We weren’t aware of the visual impact,” he said. “Craig Apple gave a little speech — it was all safety, safety, safety.”

Frank Commisso, a Democrat and majority leader of the legislature, told The Enterprise earlier that he introduced the resolution because the sheriff requested it, which Apple confirmed.

Smith said that, after listening to Monday’s speakers, Commisso had told Smith they should talk about the resolution. “He said we should take a look at it,” Smith reported.

Commisso told The Enterprise on Wednesday, “The county is not reconsidering the resolution.”

He said of the Hilltown citizens seeking different placement for the towers, “I sympathize with their concerns but you have to weigh the conditions that exist out there…The first time there is an incident and someone is saved, everyone will realize we need this type of protection.”

Commisso also said, “Sheriff Craig Apple is the specialist. We don’t want to tie law-enforcement’s hands.”

“Most of the legislators have no idea what is going on in the Hilltowns,” Smith said on Tuesday. “Once it was pointed out last night, they could see the importance of the views.”

Asked if he was in favor of re-instating home rule, Smith said, “I’m in favor of taking a second look. We thought the towns were for it.”

He also said, “The Hilltowns need communication. We need a plan that works for everyone.”

In December, Scenic Rensselaerville, a group that court papers say has 170 members, many of them artists, sued the sheriff, the Rensselaerville Planning Board that had granted a permit to build the Edwards Hill tower, and the owners of the property where the tower would stand.

In March, the planning board’s lawyer filed for an order dismissing the suit, saying the tower is immune from the planning board’s jurisdiction.

The lawyer for Scenic Rensselaerville says her clients’ suit seeks a better review process and now, because of the county’s resolution, passed after the fact, her clients will have to pay more for dragged-out court battles, stymying a chance for the case to be heard on its merits.

Speaking out

Alexander Gordon, a Knox farmer and former county legislator, told his one-time colleagues, “We need to evaluate the resources we have….These artists come to paint, enjoy, and drink the views…Many of you go there for Sunday drives.”

The scenic views, Gordon said to the legislators on Monday, are “the best economic development tool we have.”

He urged, using a phrase that others would repeat, “Reset the clock on this…Take a deep breath.”

Mark Segenberger of Berne told the legislators he has worked for 34 years as a landscape architect, environmental specialist, and regulator having reviewed over 2,000 applications for the Adirondack Park Agency.

From a visual standpoint, he said, the Jansen Lane tower would be “in the absolute worst location,” visible from highways, schools, and parks.

The county never offered workshops or outreach opportunities, he said, and county officials seemed unaware of town zoning or Berne’s draft comprehensive plan.

Segenberger called the resolution that the county had passed in February “disrespectful to the community.” He told the legislators, “You can plan new towers not readily visible.”

He also said he had met with Apple and reported he was “optimistically hopeful” that a way could be found “to improve services and be sensitively located.”

“These need not be mutually exclusive goals,” he concluded. “Let’s make it a win-win for the community and the county.”

Legislator Smith said that he met last Thursday with Apple, with Inspector Ralph Mariani, who has shepherded the sheriff’s project though various town reviews; with Segenberger; and with Tim Lippert, Berne’s building inspector, a member of the comprehensive planning committee and previously a member of the planning board.

“I’ll meet with anybody,” Apple told the Enterprise on Tuesday, when asked if it was likely plans would change because of the get-together. “I’ll let them vent all day long….We did an engineering study and we got the absolute best locations…I owe it to the entire county to maximize efficiency.”

Referring to another proposed tower location, Apple went on, “On Sickle Hill Road, we’d lose the Berne hamlet,” which includes the school, the library, the town hall, and churches.

“We are looking at the height of the antennas; maybe they can be a little bit lower. It’s up to the engineers,” he said.

Apple also said, “There is so much misinformation. I’m going to stop talking and let it play out in the courts.”

Mark Hohengasser was the third Hilltown resident to address the county legislators on Monday night. He is from Berne and said he has worked for 18 years locating facilities in parks.

“You need to consider the public,” he said. “I know there’s a better way to do it.”

Hohengasser also said, “Most people didn’t know about this. Most people feel communication is important. They feel there’s a better option.”

He called the county’s resolution against home rule “disrespectful to the town.”

He praised the work county planners had done on bicycle and pedestrian routes and suggested they could hold a charette, referring to an intense effort to design a project.

“If we all work together, we could come up with something better,” Hohengasser said.

Susan Hawkes-Teeter, also of Berne, said the hamlet is the social center of the community. The Jansen Road location is on Uhai Mountain, she said, which is in the alma mater for Berne-Knox-Westerlo.

She said, too, that the tower would be across from the Lutheran Church where organizers met for the Anti-Rent Wars.

“No one opposing this is against communications,” said Hawkes-Teeter. She also said, “We are not called the Hilltowns for nothing. There are a lot of hills.”

Kathleen Moore, who chairs Berne’s conservation board, told the legislators, “It’s our charge as a board…to review any action, any action that is designated in our open-space index.”

She said the tower on Jansen Lane would be in a designated scenic vista that has existed since the late 1970s or early 1980s.

Moore stated her board was “dismayed to say the least” and that the review process was run over roughshod with inadequate analysis of the impact.

The influence of the Berne tower would extend to the neighboring town of Knox where the impact hasn’t been evaluated, she said.

“They produced no map,” she said of the applicants and there was no photomontage of the balloon test conducted as the Berne Planning reviewed the proposal.

Moore said the law was violated with “no process of genuine community engagement.”

There was a March 17 public hearing; the sheriff appeared at a Berne Town Board meeting, inviting people to attend the hearing.

Moore urged the legislators, “Turn back the clock.”

Finally, Tom Ellison, who lives in Albany, spoke in support of the Hilltown contingent. He called Rensselaerville “one of the most beautiful places in the United States” and said the county had erred when it passed the resolution.

“Set the clock again to start over,” he told the legislators.

Ellison said he had read about the issue in The Enterprise. “I’ll stand up for any just cause,” he said. “You should always have a public hearing when local laws are being trumped.”

Further concerns

Across the nation, research is being done to develop a First Responder Network. In 2012, Congress created the FirstNet authority, allotting $7 billion and a swath of radio spectrum to build a broadband network for public safety that would encompass the entire country.

A FirstNet spokesman said satellites may be used in rural areas which Apple dismissed earlier saying, “FirstNet is pie in the sky…they’ll be putting up towers, too, not just using satellites.”

This week, Bob Tanner told The Enterprise he was concerned the proposed towers wouldn’t help local volunteers. Although Tanner is the first assistant chief for the Rensselaerville fire department, he stressed that he was speaking as an individual, not as a representative of the fire company.

Tanner said he had been following the issue from Iraq where he was deployed.

“The 800-band system isn’t meant for day-to-day use to page firefighters,” he said. “You can’t page off that system. It’s not fixing the problem,” he said of pockets in the Hilltowns that don’t allow for radio communication.

The sheriff’s system, he said, is “designed for interoperability to talk between agencies or across different counties and states. The problem in the Hiltowns is little pockets you can’t talk to or page to because of the terrain.”

The pagers that volunteer firefighters use cost $250 to $300 each, Tanner said, while the radios for the new system cost $3,000 to $7,000 each.

“If the sheriff’s department gives us a radio for the chief, it doesn’t help if the chief is not around; you have no backup,” said Tanner. “The 800-band radios are cost prohibitive for a small fire department.”

Apple responded through The Enterprise that the current paging system is not being replaced. “We just made sure it’s up to date,” he said.

The new communication system is already working in the north end of Albany County, Apple said. “The radios are crystal clear.”

Asked about the radios being cost prohibitive, Apple said of local fire departments, “If they have a radio now, they’ll get a radio.”

Tanner said that Knox volunteers, in areas that radios can’t reach, are using an “IamResponding” system that “comes through your cell phone; it’s the same as the pagers — you can hear it and see it in a text message.”

Tanner went on, “The new towers won’t help the pockets unless there are cell antennas on them.”

“Cell service is not my issue,” said Apple. “My priority is radio service and interoperability. My second issue is high-speed internet. The Hilltowns deserve that.”

Legislator Smith had commented on Tuesday, “If we’re looking at an ugly tower, we should at least get internet from it.”

Apple also said, “I’m trying to not be adversarial. Responding to their houses is more important than their views.”

He went on about lack of reception in parts of the Hilltowns, “Everyone has complained for 30 years.” In the last week, he said, he has been “inundated” with emails and calls from citizens wanting to push forward with the project as planned.

“The thing that made me madder than anything else — I don’t oppose the 800-band system — is a lot of questions haven’t been answered or even asked,” said Tanner.

In 2005 or so, River Valley Radio of Westerlo had wanted to put up a tower on Route 253, he said. “Everybody shot it down; they said it would destroy the vista. The town board made a law they couldn’t do that. Now three members of the board are part of emergency services. Since the sheriff is backing it, the legislators are saying, we don’t care about your law; we’ll supersede it.”

He went on, “I just came back from fighting in a war where people’s lands are being taken away and they’re being made to do what they don’t want to do. I come home and they’re doing the same thing here. It really got me mad.”

Tanner concluded with this advice, “Be smart about it; do your research. Don’t shove it down people’s throats.”