Subject: New Jersey tower story - Bergen Record (fwd)
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 162655 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To: emfguru@hotmail.com
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 15:57:06 -0700
From: Bob Weiner
To: "\"Roy L. Beavers\""
Subject: New Jersey tower story - Bergen Record
Borough wants to cash in on tower
Tuesday, June 30, 1998
By PAUL ROGERS
Staff Writer
FRANKLIN LAKES -- Last year, the borough
made history when it became home to the state's
first wireless communications antenna camouflaged
as a pine tree.
Some considered it a novelty of the digital age, with
lines of cable hidden inside brown rubber bark. But
some borough officials saw it as a missed
opportunity for municipal revenue.
That's because the ersatz evergreen was put up on
private land -- at a nursery, in fact -- whose owner
receives fees from telecommunications companies
that use it to relay cellular telephone signals.
With that in mind, Mayor Tom Donch and the
Borough Council have introduced plans to have a
cell tower erected on borough property behind the
police station, despite protests from nearby
residents.
The council is seeking bids from communications
companies interested in building an antenna of up to
130 feet and leasing it from the borough for at least
$15,000 a year.
That way, Franklin Lakes not only could generate
revenue, it could improve its emergency
communications system by linking it to the antenna,
Councilman Geoffrey Rosamond said Monday.
Federal and state courts have ruled that towns
cannot stop cellular antennas from being put up in
reasonable places. In other words, the courts say,
the benefits antennas offer in creating a more
seamless communication network outweigh
concerns about health risks or property values.
"If they're going to be in town," Rosamond said,
"what's the more responsible thing to do: Just let
them spring up where people want them to for
profit incentive, or do we grab the bull by the horns,
as we should have a year and a half ago?"
As for the antenna being proposed, he said: "We're
going to see that it has the least impact possible,
and we're going to help with our tax burden at the
same time."
But residents of nearby Mable Ann Avenue decried
the plans, saying the tower would be an eyesore
and the potential revenue would make little
difference in the affluent town.
One homeowner, Colleen Pensa, said she thought
that when the fake pine tree went up at Twinbrook
Nurseries on Franklin Avenue, the issue was over.
If another cell tower is needed, she said, it shouldn't
be placed on the edge of both a residential
neighborhood and the lush playing fields behind the
police station and Borough Hall.
"Why can't that tower be hidden in the woods
somewhere unobtrusive where it will not affect
property values?" Pensa said.
Pensa also questioned why the borough's
emergency communications couldn't be tied into the
antenna at Twinbrook, only blocks from the police
station.
But Police Chief William Holland said that would be
far less effective. To do so, he said, would mean
that the radios at police headquarters would have to
be connected by telephone wires to the Twinbrook
antenna.
As of now, Holland said, the police radios are
linked via telephone wire to an antenna at the
Saddle Ridge Horseback Riding Center. The
connection repeatedly breaks down because of
downed utility poles, short outages caused by rain,
and maintenance work by repair crews, he said.
"There's too much potential for problems, and
we've experienced all of them," the chief said,
pointing out that officers often find themselves
unable to use their portable radios at accident
scenes and must get to a nearby telephone.
At least one council member, Linda Allen, opposes
the cell tower plan. "Visually, it's going to be a
monstrosity," she said.
The council is scheduled to meet tonight, and Allen
said the members will discuss any bids that have
been received.
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html