Signs of Soil Testing at Margaret Harris Comprehensive School

(click headline for the full story)  Despite the community's recent objections to the DeKalb County School Board, it appears as though T-mobile has started the soil testing process which is one of the steps they need to complete in order to apply for the Special Administrative Permit that they expect will be "rubber stamped" in a closed meeting with the Interim Director of Planning & Sustainability, Andrew Baker, sometime this month or early first quarter. 

The community members have started their own Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Briarcliff-Heights-Community-Action-Group/278307285544800?ref=ts. We are rooting for them to catch up quickly so we can pass them the ball and let them run it in for a touchdown! If they can stop their tower, that means there is still hope for the other schools, too, so don't give up if you are still trying to find a way to oppose the tower near you! Seek legal advice outside of the county if you are having trouble finding council in DeKalb. Many land use and environmental attorneys here are already working on retainer with a cell company and cannot accept a job that would be a conflict of interest.

Signs of land distrubing activity in expectation of a T-mobile tower took place in the Briarcliff Heights neighborhood which is located in a part of Atlanta that is considered to be unincorporated DeKalb County. 

An important distinction to make is that between three similar sounding schools that have all been a part of the cell tower protest:  Brockett Elementary School is located in Tucker.  Community members there rallied early and were able to have their school removed from the school board's list in July.  By August, these parents started organizing an outreach campaign to inform the communities surronding the 9 schools still on the school board's list. 

The first school that Brockett Elementary, via Get the Cell Out - Atlanta Chapter, reached out to assist was Briarlake Elementary School in an unincorporated part of DeKalb that uses the name of Decatur.  And, just recently members of GTCO-ATL were successful in reaching the Margaret Harris School in Atlanta, a community known as Briarcliff Heights.  To make matters even more confusing, Lakeside High School, the school that reportedly started the initial inquires into placing cell towers at schools to assist with their dropped call issues, is located in Atlanta on Briarcliff Road.

If you can keep all those "B's" straight, we'll give you an "A" for effort!