Higher tower could be slated for Center Firehouse

While the application for a new cell tower at the Manhanset firehouse on Cobbets Lane now goes to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a special permit and area variances, a new situation has arisen that may require replacing a 65-foot tower at the Center firehouse with one double that height.

The Board of Fire Commissioners meeting Monday night included a discussion on efforts that haven’t worked to solve communication problems for some firefighters who have not been getting some local calls.

Even Chief Greg Sulahian, who works at the Shelter Island School, just two blocks from the Center Firehouse, doesn’t always get a call.

That puts the onus on those who do get the communication to put out the word to others and delays response time. No such calls have resulted in a crisis to date, but fire commissioners and firefighters have been working to correct the situation only to hit one more obstacle — the need for that higher tower in the Center.

To try to remedy the situation, district fire commissioners purchased new equipment. But once the new equipment was installed, it was discovered that the existing 65-foot tower is not high enough to ensure all firefighters are getting full readouts from the Southold dispatchers, who handle Shelter Island’s emergency calls.

Two options exist, according to Commissioner Larry Lechmanski:
• Wait until the Cobbetts Lane tower is approved and constructed to see if signals from Southold that will reach that tower can then be successfully transmitted to the Center firehouse.
• Construct a higher tower at the Center firehouse that, though doubling the height of the present tower, would solve the problem.

Commissioner Andy Reeve will look into the possible cost for a new Center tower that would not carry any cellphone antennas, but be used exclusively for the fire district’s communications equipment. Mr. Reed will also determine whether building a new tower would require the full review of an application by the town.

“We were hoping it was going to work,” Mr. Lechmanski said about revamping the existing tower at the Center Firehouse. As for the equipment purchased, it is appropriate, but simply can’t function effectively on such a short tower, he said.

He speculated that a new tower could cost about $60,000, but that number could be changed after Mr. Reeve’s research.

As for the Cobbetts Lane tower, it’s height is projected to be 120 feet from the ground, but the property there is 55 feet above sea level.

When the ZBA might examine the pending Cobbetts Lane application is unclear. The application is awaiting ZBA action. The matter could come up for discussion this month or, more likely, in January.

Although there has been opposition by some neighbors to the Cobbetts Lane tower, it’s expected that the needs of the fire department to reach certain areas in Hay Beach and Ram Island will outweigh concerns about the aesthetics of the tower.

Work sessions and regular ZBA meetings are open to the public for anyone to voice support or opposition to the proposed tower.

ELECTION
While only Mr. Lechmanski faces a re-election bid to the board for a fourth five-year term as a commissioner this month, he said he’s taking nothing for granted, even though he has no opposition.

There could always be a write-in campaign, he said. That’s happened in the past, but such efforts have failed.

After 15 years on the job, why does he want another five-year term?

“It’s in my blood,” he said, but added that he has been the point person attending meetings with neighboring fire officials and Suffolk County officials about a change in radio frequencies.

“The illustrious [county] government has taken our frequencies away from us,” he said about a switch that is gradually going to result in the loss of existing low-band service — which Shelter Island has — and require all fire districts to use high band service.
Southold, which dispatches for Shelter Island, has already made the conversion, but is still offering low band service. Should that change, Suffolk County, which serves as a backup dispatcher for the Island, could take over the low band calls until January 1, 2021.

By then, the district must have high band radios in place.

Several times in the past few years, commissioners here have delayed action on recommendations for equipment it should purchase, actually saving money since those recommendations turned out to be wrong.

Mr. Lechmanski said he wants to see the process of conversion frequencies through to completion, saying it would be unfair at this point to dump the project in someone else’s lap.

“I have to see it through,” he said.

Voting takes place at the Center Firehouse on Tuesday, December 13, between 6 and 9 p.m. and because it’s an uncontested election, voting will be by paper ballots.