The Edgewood Commission approved a land swap with Santa Fe County that may mean that residents will have better cell service, improving communication and overall safety for thousands of people in East Mountain communities.
At an Oct. 8 meeting, the Edgewood commission unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the exchange of property with EPCOR Water New Mexico Inc. According to Edgewood Community Development Director Brad Hill, EPCOR has an ideal location for a cellphone tower, but no desire or legal ability to benefit from a tower on that site. Hill said that EPCOR has a water well on a parcel of land owned by the Town of Edgewood which is in disuse and “will remain abandoned because of certain conditions.”
“It made sense that we provide them with part of that parcel so they can put in a new well and a new water tank and distribution pump, because that’s the need that they have, and they would give us the parcel where the cell tower could be,” Hill said.
According to Hill, the land parcels that will be exchanged are located on a property near Aspen Road and David Loop. Hill said the property containing the parcels the town wishes to swap was identified as a private park donated to Santa Fe County at the same time a subdivision was approved, and contains an existing water tank and the EPCOR facility.
“They’re keeping the tanks. We’re getting the parcel that doesn’t have anything on it,” Hill said.
Hill said that swapping properties between Edgewood and EPCOR would not only benefit both parties, but residents of Edgewood and the surrounding communities.
“The building of the tower and the maintenance of the tower would be by private parties,” Hill said. “Basically the town would be leasing the site to providers, and it would serve an area that currently has very poor service.”
Commissioner Sterling Donner said he doesn’t “see a lot of negatives” regarding the property swap, and building a large 5G tower would potentially provide thousands of people with services they did not have before.
“A tower like that would cover pretty much the entire southern half of Edgewood with services as well as probably a lot of the northeastern part of it as well,” he said. “District Four, I know specifically, does not have the best internet services.”
Hill said building a new tower could accommodate the Santa Fe County Emergency Response Center but Edgewood police said that improving cellular capabilities would only slightly improve their ability to communicate within the department.
“In all reality, when we switch to the state system, we will not be using this tower anymore at all. Currently, we do utilize this tower on a day-to-day basis, but after we transition and switch over to digital, we won’t be using them at all,” a spokesperson for Edgewood police said. “Some of the new systems they are talking about, they would be able to use cellular connectivity.”
Edgewood police did say that improving internet capabilities would “most definitely” benefit residents in the event of an emergency.
“We do have blackout areas as far as cell use,” the spokesperson said. “Everybody who lives down Edgewood 7 knows that when you go down the hill, generally, if you have AT&T, you tend to lose service down in that area. And Verizon is pretty spotty. You lose calls in that area as well.”
Not everybody was satisfied with the approval. During public comments, residents expressed concerns that the trade with EPCOR is not an equal trade and said that appraisals of both properties were not made public before the commission voted on the resolution.
A statement read by Town Clerk-Treasurer Michelle Jones on behalf of resident Linda Holly said, “It appears to me, the citizens are losing a designated park open space. In the interest of transparency, this commission owes the citizens of Edgewood answers to all of these questions and the opportunity for the town citizens to voice their opinions of the quote, ‘land swap.’ I would like to see a public hearing scheduled for this matter prior to the commission taking any action on the resolution authorizing the swap.”
