LAKE PLACID — Cell-phone dead zones made the A-list of issues at a legislative reception Friday morning at Mirror Lake Inn.

With tourism numbers up and winter on the way, state lawmakers reported progress on temporary towers, anticipating added cell service on remote stretches of Interstate 87 by late December.

LOST TOURIST

During the breakfast, one local motel owner told Sen. Betty Little (R-Queensbury) about a guest who turned up missing.

“It was Friday night and the guest hadn’t arrived, so (the motel owner) became concerned and tried to call her,” Little said in an interview.

“He found out she had driven up the Northway as far as Schroon Lake but was running out of gas, with no exits and no cell-phone service, so she turned around and went home.”

People don’t expect to lose communications on an interstate thoroughfare, she said.

“We want people to be safe while they’re here,” she told a room full of hotel/motel owners and tourism leaders.

“We’ve been working on this issue for a long time,” she said, pointing to Assemblywomen Teresa Sayward (R-Willsboro) and Janet Duprey (R-Peru), who were also at the table.

TEMPORARY PATCH

But while Verizon Wireless prepares 11 permanent towers for I-87, a temporary winter solution is also moving forward.

Independent Tower Company found three locations on private land for Cells-On-Wheels (mobile cell towers known as COWs): one just off exit 29, another near the High Peaks rest area and one in the Town of Lewis.

Two locations have the necessary high-speed, T-1 telephone lines, and Verizon is working to reach the third location.