BY LIZ SHEEHAN
Correspondent

FAIR HAVEN - The borough will submit a report to the state Department of Environmental Protection this week asking that the department "take a second look" at its request to place a cell tower in Fair Haven Fields, Borough Council President Thomas Gilmour said Monday.

Gilmour said that he, Mayor Joseph Szostak, Councilman Chris Walrath and Assemblyman Michael Panter (D-12) had attended a meeting with DEP representatives, that included Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck (R-12) on a conference call. During the late September meeting, the officials asked the agency to "make an exception" to its policy of not permitting cell towers on Green Acres property.

He said they were told it was up to the town to "provide a good-enough reason" for the exception.

"I felt encouraged," Gilmour said, adding that the borough was told to put its reason for wanting the swap in a report. He said he is hoping to have it done this week.

Two years ago, the Borough Council passed an ordinance restricting the location of cell towers to borough-owned property.

The state declined to give permission to use a portion of Fair Haven Fields, which was acquired through the Green Acres program, for the tower site.

On Monday, Gilmour said the borough was now offering to swap a parcel of properties near the old chipping center for a small site in Fair Haven Fields, and to remediate the chipping site to be part of the borough's open space.

An offer to make a land swap was part of a previous request that the DEP rejected.

Since the DEP's rejection, the borough has considered several other sites it owns, finally settling on the police station and youth center property.

But after learning that the town would need to get approval from the DEP for that location, in August the site was switched down the street to Fisk Street on a lot between two residences.

That council decision was strongly opposed by residents, who vowed they would fight it in court.

As the council tried to select its own site in order to keep control of the tower and benefit from the revenues it would generate, Verizon Wireless has moved ahead with its effort to put the tower in the town, and wants to raise it on the property of the Church of the Nativity, Ridge Road.

The company has made several presentations to the borough's Zoning Board seeking variances to use the site, stressing what it said is poor reception for cell phones in some areas of the borough.

In July, Verizon placed a crane on the church property for a day to simulate how the 133-foot tower would appear to residents.

At one of the board hearings, Warren Stillwell, the attorney for Verizon, said that a state court decision had overturned an ordinance in Ringwood similar to Fair Haven's, which restricted cell towers to borough-owned property .

Verizon has asked to appear before the Zoning Board to continue the hearing on its application in November. The hearing is scheduled for Nov. 2

Gilmour said Monday that Verizon "agreed to give us a little bit of time."

Both the church and Fisk Street sites have been criticized by residents.

A group has been formed called the Residents for the Future of Fair Haven. The Web site, www.fair-haven.com/celltower/, states the group "banded together in the fight to prevent a cell tower from being erected in any residential area within Fair Haven."

According to the Web site, Fair Haven Fields is the only location that would put a cell tower at a sufficient distance from schools and residences in the town.