QUICK! Put up that tower before someone tries to stop us!

Parents in 4 communities have all OPPOSED the construction of cell towers on their public school playgrounds.

In one community, the parents appealed the decision to build a cell tower on their local school to the Maryland State Board of Education.  And guess what? The parents have a very good chance of winning their appeal.

Q:  What should a Board of Education that hates public school children do 

when they are about to lose?   

A:  Put up those controversial cell towers as fast as possible. 

8/6/2015 Annapolis Middle School

And that is exactly what is going on in Prince George's and Anne Arundel Counties.  Fast paced construction efforts are underway to put up four cell towers on public school playgrounds.  Crews work frantically, even in the middle of the night and weekends in order to get the towers up.  Why?  Because once a tower is up and running, it is much more difficult to have it taken down than it is to stop it from going up in the first place.

Here is what the Administrative Law Judge who heard this case decided:

PROPOSED ORDER 

IT IS PROPOSED that the State Board order that the Local Board's agreement to lease school property for the purpose of construction a cell tower (or cell towers) as memorialized in the Master Agreement is not consistent with its trust obligations under section 4-114(a)(1) of the Education Article.

Is there a lesson for those who may be aware of a cell tower proposal near them right now? Absolutely.  If you have opposition or concerns about a proposal, speak up as soon as possible and inform as many of your  neighbors as you can.  Regardless of what you believe about the health impacts, cell towers are a blight on a community in many ways.  They often disrupt the view of the sky and they can cause enough fear or concern that  your neighborhood may never be the same again.  People will leave simply out of the fear of the unknown, regardless of whether or not they have even read any of the science behind the belief that towers can lead to cancer.

So, if you like where you live and want to stay there for a while, a cell tower is most likely something that you can do without and if you don't speak up in the beginning, it will be harder and harder to do so later.  You won't be harming your community.   And, you might even be saving people's lives.

Tower companies ALWAYS have alternatives to the proposed spot near you.  They can  actually share space on existing towers and co-locate their antennas to reduce the number necessary.   They will find a way to conduct their business and turn their profits.

GTCO-ATL wishes the folks fighting the good fight in Maryland all the best.  Keep it up because you are doing the right thing!  We will continue to follow your story!

Delay, Delay, Delay: Another School Community Makes Headway in the Fight Against Cell Towers

Milestone Communications

Communications representative Christian Winkler shows a
PowerPoint presentation detailing his company's research during
a community meeting Monday at West County Area library to
discuss plans for a Verizon cellphone tower to be placed at
Piney Orchard Elementary School. On Tuesday, Winkler said
 plans are on hold and Milestone will work with the Piney Orchard
Community Association to find a better location for the tower.

Cell tower planned 

at Odenton school 

on hold

Milestone Communications plans to address Piney Orchard Elementary health concerns

Posted: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 12:00 am | Updated: 11:50 am, Wed May 22, 2013.
By JAKE LINGER jlinger@capgaznews.com

A proposed 99-foot cellphone tower at Piney Orchard Elementary School is on hold — less than a day after a contentious community meeting at West County Area library.

Christian Winkler, vice president of development at Milestone Communications, said Tuesday the company won’t move forward with its building permit application until it can address health and safety concerns raised by members of the Piney Orchard Community Association.

“Justified or not, people feel what they feel. We’re not out to cause more distress for anyone,” Winkler said.
The tower is one of the first proposed at Anne Arundel County Public Schools under a lease with Milestone Communications. The Virginia-based company will pay $25,000 a year to the school system for the tower, plus additional fees as more carriers lease space on the tower and then 40 percent of rent charged to those companies.

Another tower has been proposed at Broadneck High School, and three more are in development at Chesapeake High, South River High and Tracey’s Elementary schools.

About 50 angry Piney Orchard residents, most of them parents of students at the school, questioned Winkler on Monday about the dangers posed by radiation from the tower, which already is under contract to Verizon.

Winkler presented information on health standards for cellphone towers set by the Federal Communications Commission in 1996 that cap radiation at 50 times less than considered harmful levels of exposure.
“Everything we do is done within those limits,” Winkler said.

But Sean Hughes, land use counsel for Milestone, said “the safety issue is not a real issue.”
Jamie Fraser, the parent of a Piney Orchard student, said Milestone might have been misleading because it skewed its safety data to make cell towers appear safer for surrounding communities, not students who might get close up.

The proposed cell tower would be surrounded by a 10-foot fence and would be disguised to better blend into the tree line with artificial shrubbery, bark and branches. The tower is approximately 400 feet from the school building.

“The risk zone is if you were to be within 3 feet of an antenna and stay there minute to minute to minute. That’s where it gets risky,” Hughes said. “After you move 3 feet away, (the radiation) is so little and that’s why the levels are so low.”

Read article here.