A Clifton Park-based communications company has expressed ongoing interest in bringing better cell phone service to the Cooperstown area.

During Monday night's village board meeting, a letter from Shane Newell, a property and zoning specialist with Tower Communications was discussed briefly.

Newell attended a planning board last month to talk about the possibility of locating a wireless communications tower within the village to fill a gap in service in the area.

At that time, he said there were three companies, Verizon, Nextell and Cingular, which are interested in providing service to the village.

The usual solution, he told the planning board, was to put up a 195-foot tower with antennas, but he realized that was not going to be built in Cooperstown.

Instead, he was interested in seeing if there is some kind of solution that would allow them to site an antenna here.

One option was a roof-mount antenna that had room for multiple carriers. The problem is, there are not many tall buildings in the village and planning board chairman Paul Kuhn told Newell the roof-mount idea would "never happen."

The zoning law, Kuhn explained, has height restrictions and most of the buildings on Main Street already exceed that.

One suggestion made to Newell was that he investigate placing a tower where the new village water reservoir is located off Glen Avenue.

Mayor Carol Waller attended the meeting and told Newell that the village does not own the land where the reservoir is and that he would have to seek permission from the owner, Jane Clark.

The village's other water tank on Irish Hill was also suggested as a site. That property is owned by the village, Waller said.

The mayor suggested Newell contact DPW Coordinator Brian Clancy to discuss the feasibility of placing an antenna at either site.

Since that meeting, Newell met with Clancy and inspected the Irish Hill site.

"The location of the Irish Hill water tank seemed to be the best candidate," he wrote in his letter to the mayor. "...it can work as a suitable location for a telecommunications facility."

In his letter, he said there are five FCC licensed wireless carriers in the Otsego County area interested in providing service to Cooperstown and he would like to discuss the construction of 120-foot tower to be built at the south end of the property or using the water tank as a mounting structure.

Newell said his company would lease the land from the village and assume all responsibility for local, state and federal approvals and compliance.

Lease rates, he said, range between $500 and $1,200 per month, depending on the constructability of the site and the likelihood of multiple carriers using the antenna.

Trustee Stuart Taugher, the chairman of the water board, said during this week's meeting that the water board would like to see further discussion of the proposal.

Mayor Carol agreed, but said she was concerned about the appearance of the tower and making sure the village was getting a fair rate for use of the site.

"Just because someone waves money under my nose, it doesn't mean I'm going to jump at it," Waller said Tuesday afternoon.

The mayor said lack of coverage was a common complaint and admitted that many people in the village would probably welcome the service the tower would provide.

Waller said they will seek additional details about the appearance of the tower and also try and compare the lease rates suggested by Newell with what other municipalities receive.