Hope Chomsky is proud...

OSSINING ANTI-CELL TOWER GROUP VOWS TO INTENSIFY ORGANIZING EFFORT:
Efforts Bearing Fruit in Surrounding Communities - Rally Planned in White
Plains on Wed., 3/1 at Noon
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By DON DeBAR

OSSINING -- Members of the group Safe Ossining Schools ("SOS"), a group
organized to prevent construction of a Sprint cell tower on Ossining's only
high school, announced formation of a regional group to demand community
representation in cell tower siting decisions. The group plans, according
to co-founder Don DeBar, "to provide the organizational ability to
coordinate actions intended to give people a voice in siting decisions."
It is planned to join organizers of cell tower groups in Westchester,
Putnam, Dutchess, Rockland, Orange, Nassau and Suffolk counties.

The group's first announced action is as co-sponsor of a noon rally in
White Plains, NY on Wednesday, outside the offices of NYS Attorney General
Eliot Spitzer. Originally planned by Ossining's SOS, members of other
regional groups concerned about cell tower siting issues have been invited
to participate. Thus far, groups from six additional regional
municipalities are expected to be represented.

According to DeBar, telecommunications companies have thus far been the
only party to the community siting decision- making with the benefit of
operating with a regional view. The new group is intended to, as DeBar put
it, "even the odds" for local communities.

"Because of the lopsided nature of the power relations between
multi-nationals like Sprint, on the one hand, and a few rag-tag residents
concerned about their health and safety, on the other, we feel that only
information sharing and coordinate action offer any chance of forcing
people's scientifically valid health concerns into siting discussions",
DeBar said.

The following two items were published in the Friday, 2/26/00 Gannett
newspaper, the Journal News. More news is expected from the Rockland County
Town of Orangetown, where the town is currently before US District Court
Judge Charles Brieant on a cell tower suit. More to follow...

Carmel rejects plan for cell-phone antenna
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By BARBARA LIVINGSTON NACKMAN
COPYRIGHT 2000 The Journal News. All rights reserved.
Publication date: 2/25/2000

CARMEL --The Carmel Town Board yesterday notified Sprint PCS in New Jersey
that it would not support the company's proposal for a cellular-phone
antenna atop a municipal water tank on Lindy Drive.

Citing safety and security concerns, board members decided this week that
the $1,500 per month offered by Sprint was tempting, but not worth the
trouble.

"Basically, it was decided a no-go," Councilwoman Doris Stahl said, adding
that "security is definitely broached if we allow outside people to come up
to the water supply and climb the tower when necessary."

Spring PCS went to the Town Board last month to ask permission to install a
6-foot rod-like antenna on top of the 32-foot tall tank, which holds
300,000 gallons and supplies water to 2,000 property owners.

To maintain the antenna, Sprint personnel would have made regular
inspections every month, maybe once a week.

"We are not rejecting cell towers in other locations," town Supervisor
Frank Del Campo said, "but this would be an intrusion to our water supply."

Sprint PCS officials did not return phone calls yesterday.


Proposed cell towers in Yorktown spur protests
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By HEATHER SALERNO
COPYRIGHT 2000 The Journal News. All rights reserved.
Publication date: 2/25/2000

YORKTOWN --In the wake of tumultuous protests over a cellular phone tower
planned atop Ossining High School, more than 150 people spoke out last
night about two similar structures under review in Yorktown.

Other antennas previously erected in town received little outcry, but a
standing-room-only crowd packed a Yorktown Zoning Board of Appeals public
hearing on new towers proposed by Nextel Communications and Sprint
Spectrum.

"Our houses are going to depreciate in value because of this eyesore," said
Michele Collins, a Strang Boulevard homeowner, of the Nextel plan. "This is
outrageous -- pick another site."

Yorktown's ZBA must decide whether it should grant special permits to allow
the telecommunications companies to construct towers that would fill gaps
in wireless service, as required by the Federal Communications Commission.

Many residents at the meeting, which included members of a vocal
grass-roots group opposed to the Ossining antenna, objected mainly to
potential health threats posed by radiation emissions from the towers.

Experts, however, have found little evidence linking cellular towers and
health risks. Also, federal law prevents local authorities from considering
those fears if those emissions are within FCC standards.

That requirement somewhat ties the hands of Yorktown's ZBA members, said
Chairwoman Margaret "Peggy" Derevlany.

"By federal law, these health issues have already been addressed,"
Derevlany said before the hearing. "There is no latitude at the local level
to rethink the federal government."

Health concerns were a major reason residents were against installing a
tower at Ossining High, as well as others in Spring Valley, Orangetown and
Pound Ridge.

And as in the Ossining case, one of the Yorktown cell tower proposals
involves a school: Nextel's 80-foot monopole would be built near the
Taconic State Parkway, in a privately owned corporate park next to the
Mercy College satellite campus. It is also close to Yorktown High School
and Mildred E. Strang Middle School.

"There is not sufficient research on what these emissions can do to our
children," said Vivian Wykar, one of 250 citizens who signed a petition
against the Nextel tower. "We don't want to find out differently in 20
years."

Town planners and residents are also worried that the Nextel tower could be
seen from the nearby parkway, marring the view.

The Sprint antenna proposed on the Westchester-Putnam border in Jefferson
Valley is less intrusive, since it would be built on an existing 116-foot
Consolidated Edison tower. Sprint would attach six 56-inch-high antennas to
the tower.

DDeBar
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