T-Mobile Asked: Don’t

Mar Doubleday Project

Mayor: Trustees Unenthusiastic

About Tower On Key Bank Building

By PATRICK WAGER • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

COOPERSTOWN – After weeks of debating T-Mobile’s proposed 25-foot tower atop the Key Bank building, tonight Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch was blunt.

With the village planning $5.8 million in upgrades to Doubleday Field, “a significant historical landmark” behind the bank building, “there is no consensus or eye to approving the project at this location,” she declared at the end of a special meeting on the issue.

The Village Board, which convened to do the SEQR review, then approved a 60-day extension on T-Mobile’s application, with the idea the company might look at the Woodside Hall property at the east end of Main Street or the village water tower on the West Side, beyond Irish Hill.

The mayor said the trustees want the best and most discrete location for the tower, which the company had proposed covering with brick-like siding it said would making it look like the rest of the bank building.

Trustee Richard Sternberg added, “I am interested in seeing a plan that brings the entire village excellent cell phone coverage, and one that is not concerned with providing excellent coverage for just a few locations.”

The mayor asked that “ T-Mobile considering funding an outside engineer or cell phone coverage expert to consult on the project. “  She mentioned that CVS funded a third-party traffic study for the new CVS location.