Subject:  Churches site antennas for financial survival (Kelley)....
Date:     Wed, 22 Sep 1999 102527 -0500 (CDT)
From:     "Roy L. Beavers" 
To:       emfguru 
--------------------------------------------------


......Libby -- we both know -- that the "concern" in the following example
should be directed toward those neighbors (church members) who live in the
vicinity around the church where the main beam of the RF transmissions
will fall.....  The church, itself, escapes that.....  It is the neighbors
who deserve our sympathy and who should be carrying on the fight......

Roy Beavers (EMFguru)......
rbeavers@llion.org.......
.....It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.....
EMF-L web-site can be found at: 
EMF-L archives can be found at: 
..................PEOPLE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN PROFITS..................

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 07:22:01 -0700
From: Libby Kelley 
To: rbeavers@llion.org
Subject: Churches site antennas for financial survival  

Roy:

Another church steeple story.  For a struggling church, income from an
unseen antenna is a godsend.  In may opinion, this is a short term gain
which leads to a long term loss.  Churches who rely upon commercial and
other indirect souces of revenue and don't' build congregations or
contribute to community may fail anyway.  The almighty dollar rules, sad to
say, at many churches.

Libby Kelley


Alexandria Journal (Virginia)

Church hopes for cell tower 

Phone relay equipment in 130-foot cross faces opposition 

By STEPHEN HENN 
Journal staff writer 

Towering church steeples once were intended to help mortals better
communicate directly with God, but the Rev. Tim Mabbott
hopes the tower proposed for his churchyard will communicate directly with
AT&T. 

AT&T has offered $18,000 a year to First Christian Church, at 2723 King St.
in Alexandria's Rosemont neighborhood, to
erect a 130-foot-tall cross with a cellular telephone transmission tower
concealed inside. 

"This could be a Godsend, from our perspective," Mabbott said yesterday. 

The money would represent almost 10 percent of the church's annual budget
and could help put the church, which has struggled
financially in recent years, back on solid footing. 

But for the church's neighbors, the proposed cross is a troubling sign of
things to come. 

"We do not have anything against the church," said Michael Cassidy, who
lives directly behind First Christian. "The church has
been wonderful to this neighborhood. We believe in the church, but we don't
believe in the encroachment of AT&T in a
residential neighborhood." 

Cassidy and many of his neighbors would prefer AT&T put their cellphone
equipment on other towers in the area, such as the
Masonic Memorial. 

AT&T usually places cellphone equipment on existing buildings, according to
Alexa E. Graf, AT&T corporate communications
manager, but about 15 percent of the time that isn't possible. 

The telecommunications giant initially approached Alexandria's First
Baptist Church, according to Graf, but the Baptists were
not interested in hiding the equipment in their steeple. 

"We are debating what we are going to do," Graf said yesterday. "If the
community opposition stays as strong as it is right now,
we are going to have to rethink our other options." 

That is not the good news the Rev. Mabbott was hoping for. 

Three years ago, First Christian was on the verge of closing its doors. The
church was running an annual deficit and the aging
congregation considered selling its land to a neighboring retirement home. 

"This is a very valuable piece of property and there was some talk of
selling it to raise money and moving out to an area with
more young children and families," Mabbott said. "But we decided to give it
another try." 

The congregation has deep roots in Alexandria, according to Mabbott. For 26
years, First Christian Church has worked
closely with Alive, a city-wide ecumenical charity that assists 8,000
low-income families find food and shelter every year. 

"We would be hard-pressed to operate our child development school and our
family emergency assistance without their
assistance," said Mike Oliver, an Alive volunteer. 

Alive's pre-school for underprivileged children, which provides low-cost
day care for nearly 50 kids, is housed in First
Christian's basement. 

Alive also runs its emergency food bank and family assistance program out
of an office in First Christian Church. The program
feeds about 3,000 families a year. 

The Boy Scouts have an amateur radio room in the church, and Alcoholics
Anonymous meets there twice a week. 

"We have never been a church that said,`Look at us, look at what we do,'"
Mabbott said. "I think this is a place that does what
we do for all the right reasons." 

Every other month, Betty Pratt, one of First Christian's longest-serving
parishioners, organizes meals for a local homeless
shelter. She has been a member of First Christian Church for 53 years, but
she thinks nothing of spending a day on her feet,
cooking meals for 60 homeless women and children. 

"We've got some ham hocks cooking up in there," she said yesterday,
pointing to the kitchen. "And my friend here just made
beaucoup cupcakes. When we work, we all work and they'll eat it all." 

Pratt, who is well into her 80s, still volunteers as a school crossing
guard every morning before coming in to donate her time to
the church. 

"I've got a church full of people like that, and that is why I want to see
their dream stay alive here," Mabbott said yesterday.
"And that is why I am fighting really hard. This is significant for us.
Without it, we will take a financial hit." 

For Pratt, the debate over the cell tower boils down to common sense. 

"All the people who came up here the other day and were upset about this
had cell phones," Pratt said yesterday. "I don't know
where they think those signals are going to bounce off of. They have got to
bounce off something. You know the tower has to
go someplace and we might as well get the benefit of it." 


Libby Kelley
Executive Director
Council on Wireless Technology Impacts
aka ~ Ad Hoc Association of Parties Concerned about 
    the FCC's Radiofrequency Radiation Health and Safety Rules
____________________________
Website:  http://www.ccwti.org
Phone - 415-892-1973
Fax -     415-892-3108
Address:  
936-B Seventh Street, PMB 206
Novato, California 94945



Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com