It's Over!

Get the Cell Out - ATL was started in May 2011 

by just a few concerned parents simply walking 

their own neighborhood, talking with 

neighbors about the cell towers 

proposed for multiple schools 

across the county.  

We grew to an overwhelming outpouring of 

support when we hit an all time high of 75,000 voters 

who said "No" on a ballot referendum in July 2012 

when asked if they were in favor of 

"wireless telecommunications towers"

being placed on public school grounds.

Jan. 14, 2015:  Get the Cell Out - ATL has learned some news regarding our four year battle with T-mobile and our school system over the issue of cell phone towers that were approved for 9 schools back in July 2011.  

"The decision is important because it helps limit exemptions to zoning laws intended to protect neighborhoods from incompatible development," says County Commisioner Jeff Rader.

 "Governments (Federal, State, Local and Public Schools) retain this important prerogative, but it should only be exercised to directly advance their public mission, not simply to generate revenue."

We will have a statement on this issue in the coming days, but wanted to first get this information out to you as expeditiously as possible.  Dekalb County Commissioner Jeff Rader from District 2 has issued a press release, which can be read below, about the end to the six-way battle between the residents, the school board, the school administration, the county commissioners and the county CEO's office and, of course, T-mobile.  

Radar's statement was , unfortunately, not signed or dated. We believe it is legitimate, nonetheless.  But, we are still in the process of confirming its origin.  When we know more, we will post an  update on our website.  


Get the Cell Out - ATL was also informed just before the holidays by official sources that the school system's Superintendent Michael Thurmond reports that the contracts for all 9 of the schools originally slated for T Mobile cell towers "have been dropped."   As advised, we have waited until an "official announcement" before making any statements of our own, but we have remained on top of this issue and involved in the process as we have vowed to see it through to its conclusion.

Congratulations to everyone involved in every community who helped bring this subject to the forefront of their conversations and who held their elected officials accountable for their actions.   And thank you to every person involved in this fight and similar battles taking place across the country.  Your willingness to put yourself on the line in order to learn the truth and face skeptics should be an inspiration to others.  We would never been able to stand up to the "system" here if there were not success stories of others who had faced the same Goliath, and won their battle before ours.      


We appreciate Commissioner Jeff Rader , Commissioner Kathie Gannon and the entire DeKalb County Board of Commissioners for stepping up and taking on this fight against T Mobile while upholding the zoning code in our communities. 

If you have not educated yourself about the many adverse effects that have been documented about cell phone towers, please look over the many sources available on our website or email us with your questions.  A good source of information can also be found at the Center for Safer Wireless.

www.GETtheCELLoutATL.org

sayno2celltowers@yahoo.com

We also encourage everyone to thoroughly read the new zoning ordinance as suggested by Commissioner Rader and voice any feedback to the county commissioners and CEO's office as soon as possible. 

                                ---  Get the Cell Out - ATL

Now,  here is the statement from Jeff Rader's office:

Cell-phone Tower Update

One of the most pervasive signs of our mobile communications society is the proliferation of cell phone towers across the landscape.  In DeKalb, the mobile communications revolution occurred after the widespread development of the landscape, so the infill installation of these structures has been perceived as intrusive in many residential neighborhoods.  One recent decision and one pending regulation are relevant and noteworthy.

The recent noteworthy decision is the dismissal of a suit against DeKalb County by T-Mobile, a cellular provider.  T-Mobile had sued DeKalb seeking a building permit for structures on two DeKalb County School System (DCSS) properties in District 2: Lakeside High School and Margaret Harris Comprehensive School.  T Mobile had entered into a contract with DCSS seeking to invoke DCSS’s exemption from zoning regulation to erect the towers in residential districts where they are otherwise prohibited.  Encouraged by the DeKalb Board of Commissioners, the DeKalb County Administration declined to recognize the requested permits as exempt from zoning since the cell towers were not educational facilities.  T-Mobile sued, but canceled their contract with DCSS after the Federal Courts ruled in favor of DeKalb. T-Mobile also paid DeKalb County court costs incurred in our defense.  

Regardless of any bad publicity you may have heard about our county commissioners, 

they at least did the right thing for the communities they serve when they all signed a 

letter to the CEO's office, advising that any attempt to gain an "administrative permit"

instead of using the proper channels should be denied and our county's zoning ordinances 

should be upheld. 

The decision is important because it helps limit exemptions to zoning laws intended to protect neighborhoods from incompatible development.  Governments (Federal, State, Local and Public Schools) retain this important prerogative, but it should only be exercised to directly advance their public mission, not simply to generate revenue.

The pending decision on the regulation of cell towers is in our new zoning ordinance, which will soon be considered by the Board of Commissioners.  After considerable public input and a thorough investigation of relevant federal legislation, the current proposal would allow cellular antennas within or attached to nonresidential structures legally permitted in single-family neighborhoods.  These would include houses of worship or other institutions that are legally permitted to be of sufficient height to make a cellular antenna attractive to a carrier.  The new proposal would not allow the cell towers that were the object of the T-Mobile controversy.

The proposed policy turns on the inherent incompatibility of a free-standing antenna with a surrounding single family neighborhood, and not on the concerns that some citizens have about the radio waves generated by the antenna.  This is important because federal communications regulations prohibit local regulation of cellular antennas based on radio wave concerns.    We convened citizen stakeholders interested in this issue recently, who made suggestion on refining the policy for adoption.  

The new zoning ordinance can be found online at http://planningdekalb.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/finalDraftZoningCodeJan20151.pdf 


The commissioner can be reached at:  www.commissionerrader.com  *jrader@dekalbcountyga.gov*

IMPORTANT MEETING: Cell towers focus of DeKalb meeting Monday

GTCO-ATL URGENT NOTICE:  If you do not want a cell phone tower to be placed at your child's school or in a residentially zoned part of DeKalb County, you are urged to attend this important meeting on MONDAY at 6:30 p.m.  

A show of support is very much needed so that we may keep ALL of our children, ALL of our schools and ALL of our communities safe from the unwanted and unnecessary intrusion of these dangerous structures.  

If you would like to be reminded about the many, many reasons that we believe cell towers should not be permitted in residential areas or on public properties such as schools, please refer to the bottom of this article.

Meeting notice, From the AJC

By April Hunt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

DeKalb County, which is in the process of rewriting its county code, will hold an informational meeting Monday about possible new regulations on cell towers.

The placement of towers on county schools has been a hot button issue among residents for years. Residents can offer input on code changes at the meeting, which begins at 6:30 p.m. in Maloof Auditorium, 1300 Commerce St., Decatur.

Cell Towers Should Not Be Allowed in 

My Neighborhood or at My Child's School Because ...

1.)  A Non-Binding Advisory Referendum was conducted by the state legislature in July 2012 which showed overwhelming support for keeping cell towers OFF our school grounds.  62% of voters (more than 75,000 residents upon the final tally) voted NO when asked if telecommunications structures should be allowed on any public elementary, middle, high school or charter school in DeKalb County.  16 of 18 members of the DeKalb Delegation in the House also agreed by signing on to Rep. Karla Drenner's bill that would have banned this practice completely in DeKalb.  The bill was killed in committee by someone who does not even live here and who has been found guilty of DUI three times (Rep. Chuck Sims - R).  Obviously, his judgment is questionable and if it had not been for his decision to stop the bill, we would not even be discussing this issue right now.  

2.)  100% of the communities that were actually facing the possibility of a cell tower at their local school voted NO on the referendum, stating they do NOT want cell towers on school grounds.  Their voices have never been officially heard as the school board approved the decision without giving proper notification to the homeowners at any of the schools and giving a misleading flyer to parents which resulted in a failed attempt to hold public meetings on the subject.  Even then, the majority of the board members themselves did not even attend these meetings.  There was no Superintendent at the time the issue was voted on and nearly every board member (except Dr. Walker) later stated in a public meeting hosted by Crossroads News that they would have voted differently if they had to make the decision again.  And, in fact, the county commissioners themselves have already made a joint statement aganst the towers.

3.)  Cell Towers lower property values.  Fact.  Most of our county is already suffering from a decline in property values as a result of the housing crisis.  

4.)  RF radiation from a cell tower is constant, background radiation that you cannot escape from.  We know that high power radiation causes cancer.  What researchers are still debating is the long-term effects of low power exposure.  However, there has been enough evidence to cause the world's leading authority on cancer, the World Health Organization, to upgrade it to a "possible human carcinogen."  This announcement was made PRIOR to the school board's decision and should have been considered RELEVANT new information that would have given them cause to vote differently than other school boards in our area.  Their justification that it has taken place elsewhere is not enough for us to say that it is okay for us here.  In fact, this one area could be a way to help DeKalb appeal to new homebuyers and help restore our schools to a higher standard where we place the lives and education of children FIRST.  

5.)  Cell towers are aesthetically unpleasant.  Zoning laws should take into consideration what the residents in an area want or do not want to see when looking out their windows or driving through their neighborhood.  I do not know anyone who would want to be within sight of a cell tower.

5.)  Crime is invited to our communities when we place cell towers near our homes.  Constant 24 hour access is provided to our school grounds and, for many, to the back doors and back yards of our homes that are next to the schools.  The copper theft in the metro area has been widely reported and there is no security provided to keep unwanted intruders from using these parking areas to scope out our homes, or watch our children on their playgrounds or as they walk in their own neighborhoods.  This is a danger we do not need to add to the list for our police force, which is already spread thin.

6.)  The fall zone of a tower is necessary to be one and a half times the total height of a tower.  If this is not followed in a residential area, then you are placing a tower near structures that are occupied by people most of the time.  If a tower were to fall over for any reason, human life and private and public property is at risk.  Will the county's insurance cover the damage that would occur in these cases?  If not, they need to keep the cell towers in commercial and industrial areas as they are now.

7.)  Dangers of falling ice and debris.  Many injuries can happen in winter if ice collects at the top of a tower overnight and then large portions fall to the ground as the sun warms it later in the day.

8.)  Cell tower climbers could fall traumatizing children or residents who witness it.  It is currently known as the most dangerous job in America.  In fact, people on the ground could be killed by something as simple as a screwdriver falling out of a tower climber's pocket because of the rate of speed and resulting force by which it would hit anything in its way at ground level.  We've seen what a falling limb can do when it strikes a child.  We do not need to place more of these dangers above our children's heads.

9.)  It is NOT necessary to place cell towers closer to our homes or at our schools.  We have plenty of towers in our area as they each can transmit from 5 - 15 miles and federal law mandates that they exhaust all possibilities for co-location prior to building new structures.  If they want to build new towers, it is purely a competitive game of owning a tower closer so that the competition has to sublease from them instead of the other way around.  There are NO dead zones in all of DeKalb County, as confirmed by the FCC's latest map on 3G nationwide expansion.  Unless a cell company can prove it actually NEEDS for our zoning laws to change, why would we offer to make things easier for them (and more expensive for ourselves)?  They have all the access they need right now.  They may just have to pay a little more to provide the service by utilizing the existing towers and subleasing options available to them.  This is not an industry that needs our help in order to profit.  They are one of the richest industries in the world right now, just behind oil and war.  

10.)  Distrust of government is a big issue here right now. The Snowden case with the federal government already has citizens on edge about whether or not the U.S. government is spying on ordinary citizens, intercepting their wireless calls without search warrants or without any justifiable cause.  Citizens in DeKalb are already very aware of the allegations of corruption in various levels of our government.  We do not need more reasons to distrust you or be suspicious of those who are supposed to represent us.  What we DO need are reasons to trust.

CELL TOWERS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED 

IN ANY PART OF OUR COUNTY 

THAT IS NOT CURRENTLY ZONED FOR THEM.   

Please, represent us in the way that we have asked you to.  Do not allow the tainted money of the telecommunications industry to sway you.

Zoning Code Update Comments from June 18

Here are some of the comments that were made during the June 18 Board of Commissioners Meeting. Cell tower comments dominated the overall agenda and the board determined it was best to defer 30 - 90 days before making a vote to adopt the new county zoning code.

DeKalb Zoning Code Comments June 18, 2013 by Get the Cell Out - Atlanta Chapter

The final vote on whether to adopt the new zoning code was scheduled to take place Tuesday Aug. 20. We have not heard the outcome of this meeting, yet.

Smoke Rise Residents Reach Out to DeKalb's New Interim CEO on Cell Tower Issue

8/17/13:  Note to Our Readers:  Dr. Johanna Stamper is a research scientist in mathematical biology. She has been trained in cancer research and is very concerned that there would be any possibility of cell towers being placed at schools, especially elementary schools, in our county. She says that once she explains the science, the concerns of the people in her neighborhood became much more elevated.  

If you share the concerns of Dr. Stamper and Get the Cell Out, please take a few moments to email or call, at a minimum, the following people who are critical to this struggle:

• Director of Public Works, DeKalb County:
• Director of Planning and Sustainability, DeKalb County:
• Interim CEO of DeKalb County:
• Interim Superintendent of DeKalb County Schools:
• And your county commissioner, school board representatives and state legislators.

8/13/13

Dear Smoke Signal Editors,

Thank you for printing the Letter to the Editor in your August 2013 newspaper edition.  It was from a new Smoke Rise family that recently learned about the former school board's vote to approve cell towers for several schools in DeKalb County, including one at Smoke Rise Elementary School.  We applaud your publication for helping to educate and inform your community on this issue.

Thank you to Robert Stamper and Dr. Johanna Stamper for stepping up to inform your new community of Smoke Rise about what you learned about the dangers of cell towers and encouraging them to contact their elected officials!  We have reprinted a letter to the editor written by Dr. Stamper which was published in the August 2013 edition of the Smoke Signal, a local newsletter for the residents in the Smoke Rise community.

We also thank the Smoke Rise Homeowners' Association for sending Virginia Reece as their representative to the Tucker Parent Council meeting at Brockett Elementary School at the end of the last school year.  We appreciate her comments and efforts to educate the Smoke Rise community and others in DeKalb who heard her dialogue with the Interim Superintendent Thurmond.

We have listed some contact details here in order to assist your efforts.  As Dr. Stamper noted, it is very important for the residents near any of the proposed school cell tower sites to voice their concerns to Commissioner Lee May as he is now the acting CEO of our county.

The county commissioners have all stated they would uphold the codes at the time, but those codes are now in a review process.  Don't let the cell tower companies slip changes past you that could lead to a tower being built without community input.

We hope you will visit our website, www.GETtheCELLoutATL.org, to keep up to date on this issue.  We want to remind your readers that when they email or speak to their local government officials, it is important to mention concern for ALL the schools in DeKalb County and ALL the children.  The safety of the children must come as the highest priority above anything else.  Our leaders need to know that this is one issue that cannot be used to pit communities against one another.  On this topic, we will not be divided.

Thanks Smoke Rise residents for being GOOD NEIGHBORS!

--- Get the Cell Out Atlanta

Please leave respectful comments below:

Stan, Stan, He's Our Man!

(Jester and Watson Join Our Quest for Cell Tower Truth)

There is a new website / blog about events in DeKalb County Schools.  It's called "Stan Jester, Fact Checker," and is run by none-other than former School Board Member, District 1, Nancy Jester's husband Stan.  We are big fans of husband and wife teams since that is how Get the Cell Out - ATL originated and we greatly appreciate the hard work that Stan Jester is doing to help us and every other taxpayer out there who has been following the ongoing fraud and waste in our school system.  Nancy Jester was one of two board members to vote no on the cell tower proposal in 2011 and she called out the financial questions about the proposal from the beginning.  Thank you to both Stan and Nancy Jester!

Stan's website recently reported some of the details from the meeting held last month by the Northlake Community Alliance.  He transcribed some of the statement that was made during that meeting by County Commissioner Stan Watson, who is also on our "favorites" list for his contribution and input into the cell tower issue and for his stand against unsupported cities that are a ruse for taking over the power and budgets of our county officials who have been willing, so far, to protect the rights of the citizens in DeKalb from the unlawful siting of cell towers  too close to homes, schools or other structures.  

Here's the quote from Stan Watson as posted by Stan Jester:  

Cell TowersDeKalb County Commissioner, Stan Watson, was there to provide a cell tower update.  “It is being reviewed right now by our legal department.  And we want to make sure that we address the item of the cell towers in such a way that we could be responsible to the legalities of the cell tower.  We’re trying to treat it just like a special land use plan right now, SLUP, to make sure that we’re in complete compliance legally to make sure that it works.  So, right now, it has been tabled, Tom.  And we’re actually looking at it in our legal department.  It should come out this summer and we’ll be happy to come back and report what we’re going to do with it.  But, right now, we have it in our legal department to make sure that we can do it as a legal department and as a county.”

Stan Watson also has a web page.  It's not dedicated to deciphering school news, however.  He is actually running for re-election in Super District 7 which includes the Eastern half of DeKalb County.  His website says that he is in favor of an open and honest government.  Let's hope he means that because we are counting on him to let the public know the status of the cell tower permit application for Lakeside High School, which will trigger all remaining contracts if it is deemed to be permissible by the Legal Department for the county. 

So, we have two Stans looking out for the rights of DeKalb citizens, Stan Jester (Fact Checker) and Stan Watson (County Commissioner).  Thank you to them both for putting the truth in front of the taxpayers and trusting them to be able to handle it.  

We have added links to both the websites on our Links Page, in the right-hand column of our home page.

Please leave respectful comments below:

Americans Beware: 

Nationwide Violations of FCC Radiation Limits 

at Wireless Antenna Sites

 MARSHFIELD, VT--(Marketwire - Mar 20, 2013) - The EMRadiation Policy Institute (EMRPI) releases Videos revealing the FCC's failure to protect Americans from wireless radiofrequency (RF) radiation. 

Don't forget that DeKalb County Commissioners are partially
to thank for their strict zoning laws that protected our
children from cell phone towers in their neighborhoods.

US workers and families are at risk of overexposure to RF at hazardous levels. Hundreds of wireless industry-operated antenna sites from Maine to California have been tested by EMRPI and found to be in gross violation -- up to and in excess of 600% -- of the FCC's public exposure limits. These sites include rooftops as well as locations where the general public, including children, can gain access, and where workers are on the job. See: Wireless Industry Safety Failure I

Wireless Radiation Can Harm Health.

The only school that said
they wanted a cell tower ended up as
the only school without a signed contract.
That's a terrible representation of what they can do with "local control.

Public health is threatened by wireless radiation exposure at current FCC lawful limits as they are among the least protective in the world. FCC safety limits do not acknowledge current science, nor the 2011 WHO IARC's classification of wireless radiation as a Group 2B carcinogen. The FCC does not even enforce its own inadequate radiation limits.

FCC Fails to Enforce Its Own Wireless Radiation Limits. 

EMRPI informed FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in December 2011 of widespread FCC rules violations. Despite detailed complaint letters sent to FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief P. Michele Ellison, of RF safety violations in 23 states across all regions of the US, EMRPI has received no response that the FCC has taken any enforcement action against any noncompliant site. EMRPI's investigation re-tested sites and found violations still occurring months after EMRPI's initial filings with the FCC. The FCC responded to a US Senator's inquiry on sites in her state with misleading information about the safety of the Senator's constituents. See: Wireless Industry Safety Failure II

Are the FCC and the Wireless Industry Turning a Blind Eye to RF Violations?

Want one?
Just call your
school board
member or
anyone affiliated
with the Lakeside
City Alliance!

FCC policy allows wireless companies to self-report their compliance with the lawful RF limits. The FCC website provides no information or procedures for either the public or workers to report potential or actual violations. Despite hundreds of thousands of wireless antenna sites across the US, since 1996 the FCC has issued only one wireless Notice of Violation, and not until 2010. Is FCC policing site violations and are violations hidden from the public?

The American Public Is Not Protected.

Congress must act to hold the FCC accountable. If not, Americans will remain at risk from unlawful RF radiation exposures at antenna sites across the country. The American people have a right to know and a right to be protected. EMRPI urges the American people to demand that the FCC enforce its own RF safety limits to protect all Americans.

Contact US Senators at:http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Contact US House Members at: http://www.house.gov/representatives/

Cell Phone Tower Bill Fails to Crossover in GA

THANK YOU to Get the Cell Out Followers!  

You Helped Defeat This Cell Tower Bill!

The controversial cell tower bill sponsored by Don Parsons (R - Cobb County) which looked like it was headed to the House floor was stalled thanks to the emails received by legislators from their constituents late week!  We thank the followers of Get the Cell Out - ATL who helped in this effort to prevent this attempt to dodge local control of cell tower siting and proper  permitting procedures!

Posted: Mar 08, 2013 6:49 PM EST
By Paul Yates, FOX 5 reporter

A bill centered on cell phone towers failed to advance by Crossover Day at the Georgia state Capitol.

Demand for more cell tower capacity continues to grow and placement of the towers continues to cause battles.

The proposed legislation would have given counties and cities a 150-day deadline to act on new cell tower applications.

Click photo of our cell tower map to watch the FOX video of this story!
To see a map like this for the cell towers near your home or school, go to: 
www.antennasearch.com.

"There have been people that have said, you know, this bill would allow the cell companies to just go ahead and put up cell towers without even getting permitted by the cities and the counties. It doesn't do that at all," said Rep. Don Parsons (R-Marietta), the bill's sponsor.

But after winning easy committee approval, the bill stalled.  It did not get to the House floor By Crossover Day -- the deadline for most bills to pass the house or senate -- and have a chance for final approval.

Todd Edwards represents county commissioners at the Capitol.

"We want to thank the General Assembly for recognizing the continued meaningful importance of counties and Georgia communities and the cell tower siting process," Edwards.

Local governments warned that the measure would diminish their ability to regulate cell tower locations.

"Should there be any impediments unnecessarily – impediments at the county level -- I think we can work with our members and the wireless communities to address them," Edwards said.

But Parsons says local government delays have the effect of curtailing expanded service to consumers.

"It's very important and I wish that we could have gotten it done this year, but it's something that we'll be working on very hard next year," Parsons said.

Under legislative rules, the bill could still be attached to another measure as an amendment but the odds are against that being done successfully.