Subject:  Antennas on schools.....
Date:     Mon, 23 Mar 1998 091638 -0600 (CST)
From:     "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To:       emfguru@hotmail.com
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Some of you have already received this.....

Guru has one comment below [......], in the text of the news report.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Subject: Antennas on schools.....



EASTSIDE JOURNAL (Bellevue Washington) - March 21st 1998
PARENTS OPPOSE RELAY TOWER ON SCHOOL PROPERTY

By Linda Thielke Journal Reporter

SAMMAMISH PLATEAU - Would a cellular relay tower at Skyline High
School pose a threat to the students? Some parents think so.

They are concerned that the proposed 120-foot pole - with wireless
communications gear at the top - could fall and hit unsuspecting
students, or expose them to harmful electromatic radiation.

But the Issaquah School District which plans to allow Western Wireless
to install the pole, says the radiation argument isn't enough to stop
the project.

Under Federal law, "government agencies cannot deny construction of a
cell tower for any environmental reason - including health" said
Assistant Superintendent Doug Snyder.

Issaquah is also negotiating with Western Wireless for a similar
communications pole at Sunset Elementary.  It would be situated on the
hillside next to Interstate 90 and above the playground.

The school district would receive about $1,000 a month for each site,
Snyder said.  He added the district could cancel the lease agreements
if there was ever _scientific proof_ that radiation from the structures
is harmful.......[Italics by guru.]

  ["Scientific proof."  I will soon be writing a piece for you
about that phrase.  It is possibly the most dishonest aspect of the entire
EMF issue.....  As it has been used in the case of the tobacco health
hazard, I regard it as the ultimate example of the "complicity" of the
science community with the industry vested interests.....guru] 

School Board President Barbara de Michele said Board Members felt the
federal law was clear and that it would be useless to reject Western's
offer.

"The question was should we be spending money fighting it, or take the
income," she said.

Other school districts, however, have turned down lucrative offers
from cellular communication companies.

"We read that law differently," said Bob Collard, director of
facilities for the Lake Washington School District.  "We think it
applies to the permitting agencies, not the landowner."

Collard said other school districts have the same property rights as
homeowners, who can refuse to have cellular towers installed on their
property.

"We don't allow it, primarily because of the community's reaction," he
said.  "We decided, 'why invite the controversy?'"

There is a tower on the campus of Bellevue High School that was put up
more than 10 years ago, and there is a police antenna on the roof of
Cherry Crest Elementary.

But in recent years, the Bellevue School District has not allowed
towers or antennas on property currently in use.

"We're not comfortable doing a long-term lease on a piece of property
that's in use," said Pete Wall, Bellevue's facilities director.

"It would be like renting out the football field to a farmer to raise
hay."

King County would also have to approve the poles at the Issaquah
school sites before they could go up.

------------------------
Sent by Tom Harman







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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html