SEDGWICK — The Sedgwick Board of Selectmen voted July 12 to approve a six-month moratorium on wireless communication tower applications.
The Sedgwick Planning Board, at its July 10 meeting, also voted to approve the moratorium.
The town attorney will review a draft of a proposed Wireless Telecommunications Facilities Ordinance before it goes before residents for a vote at a special town meeting.
Sedgwick has two cell phone towers, one on Sedgwick Ridge Road and the other on Caterpillar Hill.
There have been issues with both towers, according to Sedgwick Code Enforcement Officer Duane Ford.
The town had asked that an emergency services signal be allowed when the Sedgwick Ridge Road tower was erected, but that never happened, Ford said. Also, tower workers have asked Ford to sign permits for work they’ve performed after the fact.
“That kind of prompted in my mind that there should be an ordinance that deals with future additions and future work,” Ford said.
A company called Centerline Communications had started work on the Caterpillar Hill tower before providing Sedgwick with a performance or surety bond.
“We wanted that performance bond and they did not have it,” Ford said. “So the selectmen voted to institute a stop work order if they didn’t get a performance bond. They did provide a general bond, which had to do with the construction phase, but that didn’t have anything to do with a surety bond once the tower was up.”
The Caterpillar Hill tower has since been taken over by Grain Communications, which the town has not had any issues with, said Ford.
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Jennifer Osborn
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