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The Cherry Valley Cell Tower: Who Builds It, Who Pays, and Why It Isn't Up Yet
The township has picked a company to build a cell tower at the Cherry Valley treatment plant, at $46,212 a year in rent to the township. The tower still depends on a phone carrier agreeing to put antennas on it, and none has. This piece covers how the deal works, how the township got here, what the zoning code says about towers, and what residents can do.
The problem
Residents of Cherry Valley and its 55+ Clubside section have told the Township Committee for years that their cell service is poor. At the November 13, 2025 meeting:
- Rich Smith, president of the Cherry Valley HOA, described “extremely poor service,” in the minutes’ words.
- Craig Rogers, speaking for the 89 Clubside homes, said a neighbor’s call for emergency help “dropped twice.”
- Another Clubside resident said the Planning Board chair had once told them “there’s not much we can do. It depends on Verizon” (uncorrected captions).
The township’s own resolution finds “substantial gaps in wireless communications service and emergency services communications coverage in Skillman.”
How the deal works
The township does not build towers, and it cannot make a carrier come. What it can do is offer land. Its approach has three steps:
- The township leases a patch of its own land by sealed bid under the Local Lands and Buildings Law (N.J.S.A. 40A:12-14). The bid goes to the highest bidder, above a minimum rent.
- A tower company wins the bid and builds the tower “at the sole cost and expense of the successful bidder.” The township keeps the right to put its own emergency antennas on it.
- The tower company rents space to carriers such as Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. The township gets a fixed rent, plus a share of what the company collects from the second carrier onward.
The Administrator told the Cherry Valley HOA in September 2025 that “the Township goes to bid for the vendor to build the tower then that vendor contracts for the carriers.” Officials have said the program has two aims: better coverage, and, in the Administrator’s words, “revenue streams that are outside of the property taxpayers” (uncorrected captions).
Phase 1: the municipal complex
Cherry Valley is the township’s second tower of this kind.
- March 21, 2024: the Committee leased ground at the Municipal Center, 100 Community Drive, to SectorSite Tower Assets, LLC. The terms were $41,000 a year plus 30% of rent from the second carrier on (Res. #24-3-117).
- October 14, 2024: the Planning Board reviewed it as a township “capital review” and voted 9-0 to recommend it. SectorSite’s engineer described a 135-foot monopole built for four carriers, with “Verizon … the top spot and Dish … two levels below,” and said a third carrier was in negotiation.
- 2026: the tower was built. In April the CFO said it brings in $41,000 a year, and that older towers at the baseball fields bring in about $200,000 a year.
The record does not show which carriers are now live on the Phase 1 tower, or whether it improved service in Skillman.
Phase 2: Cherry Valley, step by step
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| Aug 7, 2025 | The Administrator reports work “to expand cell service focusing on the southwest portion of the Township.” Both Cherry Valley associations had “reached out in support.” |
| Sept 4, 2025 | The Cherry Valley Wastewater Treatment Plant site is chosen. Due diligence and bid specs begin. |
| Nov 13, 2025 | Photo-simulation presentation. Res. #25-11-373 (5-0) seeks bids to lease about 2,500 sq ft of Block 31001, Lot 191 (192 Inverness Drive), with a $44,000 minimum rent. |
| Jan 22, 2026 | Two bids came in. Both are rejected on the consultant’s advice, and the lease is re-bid “with adjusted scope and term” (Res. #26-1-49, 4-0). |
| Mar 19, 2026 | Lease awarded to Wireless Edge Towers III, LLC of Rhinebeck, NY: $46,212 a year plus 41% from the second carrier on. It beat SectorSite’s $44,750 plus 35% and $10,000 (Res. #26-3-117, 3-0). |
| Oct 8, 2026 | The Mayor and Administrator attend a Cherry Valley HOA listening session where cell service is the main topic. |
| Oct 15, 2026 | The Mayor says the tower “can only go up when we have someone who’s going to lease … we don’t have anyone who’s taken a lease,” and asks residents to write to the FCC. |
The photo simulation flew a drone at 120 to 150 feet, as a plain monopole and as a “tree pole.” Of 15 street viewpoints, the tower was visible from two: the Bedens Brook Club, and Bedens Brook Road across from Congressional Court. The Administrator said the height would likely be “around that … 135 range,” possibly up to 150 feet.
Why it is not up yet
The Mayor’s October 15 remark is the key fact: the tower “can only go up when we have someone who’s going to lease.” Read with the Administrator’s 2025 description of the process, “someone who’s going to lease” most likely means a carrier, not the tower company. The Mayor did not say so in those words.
No carrier has said anything on the public record about this site. The township has not said whether the Wireless Edge lease has been signed, or what it says about a deadline to build.
Which board reviews it
The township’s land development code sets conditional-use rules, including minimum lot sizes, setbacks from homes and height limits, for new towers proposed by private applicants. Phase 1 did not go through those rules as a variance case: the Planning Board heard it as a “capital review” of a township project. The record does not say which route Cherry Valley will take, and no Planning Board or Zoning Board agenda through October 2026 lists it. When it is scheduled, the hearing is where height, design and setbacks will be decided in public.
The plant is closing
The tower site is the same plant the township plans to decommission, piping its flow to the Skillman Village plant (closing the Cherry Valley sewage plant). The record does not say whether that affects the lease area, the plant’s electrical service (where the Administrator said the tower would likely sit), or access from Inverness Drive.
What is not known
- Whether the Wireless Edge lease is signed, and its term and build deadline.
- Who bid in the first round, and what “scope and term” changed in the second.
- Whether any carrier is negotiating for the site.
- The approval route, the final height and the design.
- Whether any coverage study (drive tests or propagation maps) exists for the area.
What residents can do
- Document the gap. The FCC’s Mobile Speed Test app can record where service fails, and the FCC National Broadband Map shows each carrier’s claimed coverage at your address. The FCC’s rules on how tests are used are on those pages.
- File an FCC complaint. The Mayor asked residents to write to the FCC. The FCC Consumer Complaint Center forwards complaints to the named carrier. Name your carrier, your street and what fails: calls, 911, or data.
- Tell your carrier directly, and ask whether it plans to go on the Cherry Valley tower.
- Request the records from the Township Clerk: the executed lease with Wireless Edge Towers III, both bid specifications and tabulations, and the consultant’s recommendation.
- Ask at a Township Committee meeting whether any carrier has committed, and which board will review the tower. Any change to the lease would come before the Committee in public.