Town of Elizabethtown
A small door in the tin-tiled ceiling of an upstairs back room leads to the attic where ancient hand-hewn posts and beams support the roof of the Town Hall in Elizabethtown.At the front of the attic, another ladder reaches into a box-like room that holds the cupola and a huge church bell nearly four stories above the courtyard.
The 150-year-old wallboards are two or three inches thick, and they are about to be fitted with fancy new equipment: a circular array of bell-shaped antennae that will bring cellular-phone service to the Essex County seat.
Verizon Wireless has spent months designing the array to be hidden completely inside the upper attic room below the cupola.
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On the signed permit, APA also noted the cellular array will not change the historic nature of the Town Hall, which was once the Baptist church and a famed location of abolitionist speeches in the mid 19th century."Because the proposed antennas will be located inside an existing cupola, the project as proposed will not cause any change in the quality of 'registered,' 'eligible' or 'inventoried' property, as defined by the New York State Historic Preservation Act of 1980," Merrihew said
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New York RSA2 Cellular Partnership has completed detailed schematics, which show how power to the array will be run to an exterior generator.The 10-by-18-foot power box will sit outside the Town Hall, near a tree, eliminating one parking space. Two propane tanks will fuel the generator in the event of power failure. A new service will be added to existing power lines out front.
Verizon will rent the cupola site for about $1,000 per month in a 25-year contract to be reviewed every five years.
Cellular array options and site specifics were readily available, Merrihew said. Verizon engineers had a catalog of types of cell-tower installations they can hide inside bell towers.
The equipment even lasts longer and works better when under cover.
"Being inside and completely protected from the weather added performance values," Merrihew said. "It means more stability for the coverage area."