WESTERLO  — “Route 145 from Durham to Middleburgh is non-existent. This is a safety issue and needs to be addressed by the carriers. I have come upon people that have broken down or hit a deer and cannot call for help.”

This complaint about Route 145 Verizon Wireless coverage was posted by an unnamed Medusa user on cellreception.com, a website where  people can praise or sound-off about their cell phone-coverage.

It’s the kind of comment cell phone carriers hate to get.  “Dead zones” and “dropped calls” belie companies’ coverage claims, and companies love to tout coverage.

But Verizon Wireless isn’t taking it lying down. In fact, the company is proposing to erect a 140-foot high cell phone tower off Route 405 in Westerlo, which would help to close the gap, and any others, in a part of the world where cell-phone towers are few and far between. Verizon reception in Westerlo, neighboring Rensselaerville, and Greenville would be improved by the tower, says town planning board chairwoman Dorothy Verch.

But first Tarpon Tower has to get the proposed tower approved by the town’s planning board, which is turning out to be a somewhat protracted affair, as is often the case with towers interrupting a rural landscape.

The application by Tarpon Towers — a Florida company that says  on its website that  it “has financed, acquired and managed over 12,000 wireless communications tower assets across the country” — is made on behalf of Cellco doing business as Verizon Wireless.

Originally submitted in October, the application is at the awkward stage, the stage at which folks who would eventually look at the tower daily wonder whether it  is going to ruin their views. To allay those concerns, a new tower must typically pass  muster by a test that simulates the height of the tower to determine just how visible it will be  from various points of view.

In a report to the Westerlo Town Board at its Dec. 6 meeting, Verch said, “A balloon test was attempted on Nov. 16 without success  because of high winds.”   The test was performed by Tectonic, a national company retained by Tarpon that, among other services, performs visual impact assessments for building projects before a spade is turned.  The Laberge Group of Albany is assisting  the planning board in the review process.

The balloon test deflated expectations by producing only “two or three ” photos, out of 25 taken, “that showed the balloon at the designated height.”

A more costly but wind-resistant crane test will have to  be the  next step, according to Verch’s report at the Jan. 3 town board meeting. Such a test is required by town law anyway, she said.

But a crane test is presenting its own problems, primarily cost. To get a crane to the site, which is about 1,000 feet from Route 405 Verch says,  would require the construction of a temporary access road at an estimated  cost of $30,000.

She said the board has told The Murray Law Firm, which represents Tarpon Towers, to find “additional sources”  and other means to conduct a successful rigid-structure  test.

An alternate site — and much less problematic because  it already hosts a tower that could theoretically be made higher — turns out not to be not viable.  The existing 100-foot cell tower at the fire station in  South Westerlo, also on route 405.

But, according to Tarpon, that tower would need to be made 200 feet higher to provide the same target coverage that a new 140-foot  tower at the proposed site further west on 405 would furnish. Topography favors the proposed new site. Verch says it’s the highest point on 405 as the road descends into South Westerlo, and looks down on both South Westerlo and Top’s Plaza in Greenville.

Verch believes a little more than 20 homes are close enough to the tower site — within 115 feet — to have required notification of the proposal. “So far we have heard only about concerns about electromagnetic emissions from the tower, “ she said, “but there’s no sense in addressing those if the tower isn’t going to go up.”

That radio frequency waves emitted by cell phone towers may be harmful to human health has been suggested by some and discounted by others.

The next step, she said, will be proposals from Tarpon for a doable visual assessment test to be presented at the board’s Jan. 24 meeting.

In another matter preoccupying the planning board and its broadband committee, Verch said that those town residents without a broadband connection to the internet should complete a “line extension form” to submit to Mid-Hudson Cable to increase pressure on the company to expand its broadband service to more homes.

“I need their input,” said Verch. It’s the only way to we can fight for cable for everyone.’

Westerlo is an “underserved” area, as defined by the state program that seeks to expand and subsidize high-speed broadband to the state’s most rural areas.