Dear Representative Sims,

(click headline for full text of email sent to Rep. Chuck Sims)

To: "chuck.sims@house.ga.gov"

Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 7:37 PM
Subject: HB 1197 Cell Phone Towers in DeKalb County
 

Dear Representative Sims,

I am writing to you today on behalf of the parents, children and property owners that remain on a list of communities that will be adversely affected if Rep. Karla Drenner's bill 1197 is not permitted to exit your committee and be placed in line for a vote by the House of Representatives in full. 

I am not a lobbyist, nor do I have the financial resources of a major industry behind me.  But, I am an American citizen and I believe I have the right to be represented fairly by my government officials, especially in matters where I feel personally threatened and my child is being denied her right to a free, primary education. 

In May 2011, my husband and I had to make a difficult decision to take our child out of the public school system so we could speak out publically to try to protect our community from a cellphone tower that was proposed for school grounds.  We were successful in having our school removed from the list before the school board voted.  But, we didn't want others to go through the same ordeal, so we decided to stay involved in the process in order to warn others and help them speak out in opposition to the towers approved for their schools. 


Rep. Karla Drenner (D - Avondale Estates) addresses concerns of

residents countywide about cell phone and cell tower radiation and

the effects on children.  Her bill seek to ban the

placement of towers on school grounds, not ban them completely. 

It has still met opposition in committee and has not progressed

toward the necessary next step of a vote by the House as a whole. 

Rep. Chuck Sims in the Chairman of the Committe holding it up. 

Please email him if you would like to see him help Rep. Drenner

resolve the outstanding issues so it can move forward quickly.

That is what brings me to where we are today.  We are trying to get our state representatives to help us locally and statewide by imposing restrictions that would protect the land we, as taxpayers, have intended for education, not for commercial profit.  There are many dangers associated with cell towers, esp. on grounds where young children play.  These kids do not carry or use cell phones, they cannot read the warning signs on the fences, they are vulnerale to the increases in their background radiation levels and they do not need a bevy of strangers coming on school property.  These towers contain HAZMAT materials and have been known to catch fire and fall over.  Schools and homes would be in the fall zone of these towers as they do not have to comply with local building codes.

Rep. Sims, I hope you understand, that as a responsible parent, I am in a  very difficult situation here in DeKalb County and I know I am not alone.  Our school board does not conduct business in the open and they often do not seem to care about the miserable job they are doing at their primary job of education children. 

As long as there remains the chance that the school board will place a cell tower on the grounds at any school at any time and get away with it, I cannot feel safe sending my child to public school, a right she should be entitled to.  And if I cannot trust a school board to place a priority on keeping her physically safe and away from harm then I cannot trust them to properly care for her mind, either. 

As a parent, I cannot take chances with her childhood that might have lifelong consequences.  It's my role to protect her and guide her to become a responsible adult and a postive contributor to society.  I just never thought it would be our own school system that I would have to protect her from. 

Who will step up to protect the children?  My husband and I have done our best to spread the word about how they tried to put a tower at our child's school and the dangers that we learned are associated with cell towers.  We remained involved in the proceess, even after we had our school removed from the list.

But, we had to take our child out of the school in order to speak out.  Now, what measures are in place to stop them from trying this again?  Who will warn the neighbors next time now that we are no longer involved in the school?  Who will warn us?

Rep. Karla Drenner has stepped up to try to give us the peace of mind that this assult on our community will not happen again.  She has a lot of people just like me who are behind her 100%.  In fact, 17 of 19 representatives signed off on her local bill to stop the placement of cellphone towers in Dekalb County.

But that bill was stalled in your committee and does not look like it will get a vote.  Why?  I understand there are lobbyists who have used the FCC Telecommunications Act of 1996 as a reason to claim her bill is illegal, but we do not think that is the case.  What's more, we are surprised that rather than just stopping our bill, your committee did not work with Rep. Drenner to suggest a rewrite that would allow it to move forward.

I've looked at similar legislation in California, New York and proposed legislation in Maryland.  Those bills include a stipulation that I think might allow Rep. Drenner's bill to move forward.  It states that a ban on cell towers would exist, "... unless the cellular carrier can show that there is an absolute need for the tower and that the location sought on school grounds is the only location that can adequately provide service to satisfy that need." 

Would the addition of a similar clause to Bill 1197 help us get it out of committee and onto the House floor for a vote?

I'm writing to ask for your help.  Can you advise me or Rep. Drenner about why her bill did not make it past your committtee and work with us to provide a revision that will satisfy the lobbyists or whomever you  have spoken to that may have convinced you to hold our local legislation back? 

We do believe this issue should be something taken very seriously on a statewide basis, but we first want to protect our county since this cell tower mission appears to be profitable for our school board (but not our schools - they are promised nothing out of the tower revenue) and we need to impose some limits on what they are allowed to do with our school properties before more good parents leave the schools and leave the county as a result. 

Let DeKalb be an example for the state.  Let us enforce some limits to protect our neighbhorhoods and children.  Please work with us to do what is right for the children who should not be caught in the middle of a battleground between political parties or become the victims of telcomm companies looking to improve their bottom line.

Please help me understand why Bill 1197 did not move ahead and what I can do to see that it does.  I have more than 1,110 petition signatures to back me up on this one.  This issue will not go away, so please help us find a way that we can protect ourselves now rather than later.

Thank you,

Get the Cell Out - Atlanta