The Town of Wawarsing's Town Board and Planning Board will be asked to make a decision about how Wawarsing will look for the next thirty years. That is the length of the lease currently being considered for a cell phone tower that would be erected on a piece of private property in the hamlet of Spring Glen.

That SBA Towers wants to erect the tower is not a problem; that's what telecommunications companies do. Nor is the private citizen's desire to have the tower placed on his land unreasonable; that's the right of the property owner.

But the fact that some neighbors and residents within the township are raising objections to the building of a 30-story structure is yet another occasion that highlights the inadequacies of the Town of Wawarsing to deal with the modern world as arbitrator between outside interests, individual residents, and the public good at large.

Whether it's a cell phone tower in Spring Glen or a Buddhist retreat center in Cragsmoor, the Town of Wawarsing is not equipped with the legal framework required to compel opportunistic business interests from running roughshod over public sentiment. 'Development at any cost' is not a sensible way to create a future for local residents. We must stop negotiating from a position of powerlessness and ignorance.

Currently, the town's codebook does not place any limits as to how tall any cell tower should stand. Wawarsing is one of the few towns in Ulster County that has no such ordinance. Why?

When asked how things might turn out regarding the proposed Dharmakaya Retreat Center, a planning board member replies that, "It's a done deal. Those people are just wasting their time." Why?

It is not as though cell phones or large developments are recent occurrences. And even if they were, isn't the job of our elected and appointed officials to be forward-looking and work on behalf of their constituents to protect them from predatory actors who will not be stakeholders in the community?

The matter of the cell tower or the retreat center are but symptoms of a broader dysfunctional governing strategy that relies on being reactionary rather than proactively seeking ways to make lives better for all town residents.

Weather permitting, a "balloon test" will be held on April 16 starting at 8 a.m. and will last for at least three hours. The test is meant to provide residents with an idea of the proposed tower's visual impact on the valley. We encourage everyone to take a look and decide for yourselves as to whether the tower will cost more than it is worth.

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