OTISFIELD – The ongoing controversy over construction of a 180-foot cell tower on Scribner Hill continues without a finding by the court.

“Nothing really has happened,” Selectmen Chairman Hal Ferguson said this week. “It’s still status quo. Nothing has been decided.”

The Planning Board approved the application by U.S. Cellular in January 2012. The tower would accommodate equipment by cellphone companies and the town Fire Department.

The Friends of Scribner Hill has since filed four appeals, saying proper notification of abutters was not given, the Planning Board failed to meet some criteria set in the town’s telecommunications ordinance and the Planning Board failed to address residents’ concerns.

The case eventually was taken was over by Oxford County Superior Court in Paris. On Jan. 31, Justice Robert Clifford ruled that The Friends of Scribner Hill is an unincorporated association and does not have standing to challenge the decision of the Board of Appeals last spring that upheld the Planning Board’s January 2012 approval to build the tower.

The judge also dismissed two complaints by plaintiffs who alleged violation of Maine’s Freedom of Access Act and a request for a trial of the facts.

The remaining plaintiffs, Kristen Roy, James Gregory and Joseph Brown, had 45 days to reply to the order or the court would have dismissed the case.

Ferguson said the group recently filed some 70 to 80 pages of documents, including a request for a time extension. The town has responded by filing the Planning Board’s facts and findings on the case.

Roy, The Friends of Scribner Hill spokeswoman, did not respond to inquiries from the Sun Journal.

ldixon@sunjournal.com