ROME — Selectmen are asking for donations to defend a freedom of access lawsuit brought against the town by a company that wants to build a cellphone tower in town.
The town’s attorney, Frank Underkuffler, estimates that it will cost at least $5,000 to defend the suit filed in Kennebec Superior Court last month by Global Tower Assets, a Boca Raton, Florida, company. Global Towers wants the town to turn over communications between officials and the town’s attorney pertaining to its application to build a 190-foot cellphone tower on The Mountain, a hill that overlooks Great Pond.
The recent lawsuit is the third that Global Towers has filed against the town since the Rome planning board turned down its tower application in February 2014.
Speaking to roughly 30 people in the Rome Community Center Monday, Underkuffler said the series of lawsuits was “unprecedented” in the 30 years he has practiced municipal law.
“I’ve never had a small town sued three times in such a short amount of time and by the same company,” Underkuffler said.
After the planning board rejected its application, Global Towers sued it in federal court, but a judge dismissed the case. The company appealed that ruling to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, and oral arguments in the case were heard last month.
Meanwhile, Global Towers filed another suit very similar to its first complaint in state court, which was transferred to the Maine Business and Commercial Court. A judge in that court issued a stay in the case last month, pausing any action until a ruling comes down from the circuit court, Underkuffler said.
With both those cases pending, the town doesn’t have to spend any money, but the newest lawsuit could cost as much as $5,000 to defend, Underkuffler said.
Although Underkuffler was reluctant to opine on the company’s strategy, some residents, including appeals board chairman Peter Schultz, thought it was easy to see what Global Towers was trying to accomplish.
“It’s quite clear the strategy is just to make us give up” by outspending the town, Schultz said.
The town has already spent $50,000 authorized by voters at a town meeting in March and a further $6,400 that it has accepted in donations since July. LaBelle said that the town received a $100 donation over the weekend and another $1,500 just before Monday’s forum, but the town has still overdrawn the legal account by $726 paying to defend the most recent suit.
“My feeling is they have us on the ropes and they just want to push us,” LaBelle said.
Selectmen were “very disappointed” with the results they got after voters approved a $15,000 cap on donations in July and received less than half the amount, LaBelle said. If the town can get to that amount, it can likely weather the lawsuit until the circuit court hands down its ruling, he said.
Underkuffler said that if the circuit court upholds the federal judge’s ruling to dismiss the case, he is “very confident” that the state courts will also find in the town’s favor.
On the other hand, if the court comes down against the judge’s ruling, the case could end up back in federal court in Maine, and Rome will have a “full-blown lawsuit” on its hands that would be far more expensive than the case has been so far, Underkuffler said.
He recommended the town have an expert in the federal Telecommunications Act review the new cell phone tower ordinance passed by voters in March to make sure it wasn’t in violation of federal regulations. A review could cost as much as $1,000, Underkuffler said.
LaBelle added that selectmen were supportive of an ordinance review. If Global Towers submits another cell tower application, the town should make sure its regulations are in perfect order, LaBelle said.
The mood in the room Monday suggested that people were behind fighting the lawsuits, but whether that translates into donations remains to be seen. LaBelle said people could make checks out to the town if they want to help.
“If you haven’t coughed up any bucks, do it,” said Chip Ridky, who lives right next to the site of the proposed tower.
“Once in a while, the small guy wins,” he added. “Rome could be that small guy.”
Peter McGuire — 861-9239
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