DeKalb County Finds Telecommunications Towers and Antennas in the County Directly Affect Public Health!

Pictured above, a view recently on 285 Northbound in Atlanta.
Eleco-smog, or RF emissions from cell towers and wireless
devices, cannot be seen or smelled, but similar to
carbon dioxide, that does not mean it is not real. 
And, that does not make it safe. 

(click headline for full text)

"DeKalb County finds that the number, height, design characteristics and location of telecommunications towers and antennas in the county directly affect the public health, safety and general welfare."

If you have heard that there is nothing to be concerned about when it comes to wireless technology, then check out the DeKalb County Code of Ordinances.  You might be surprised to know that the DeKalb County government would disagree with what you heard.  In fact, they feel just the opposite. 

See the county statement in its official doctorine, the code of ordinances, for the safe siting of cell towers:  Sec. 27 - 779. - Telecommunications towers and antennas.  They go on to say:

"The county further finds that such structures, when inappropriately located, have the potential to pose a danger to surrounding property owners and the genral public and substantially detract from the beauty and aesthetic appearance of the county."

Regardless of how or why the DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis is comfortable with just pawning this big decision off to one of the several Interim Planning Directors he has had on board, even after all the calls and emails, he will still have to make sure they comply with a few regulations.  That is, if his office plans to follow its own Code of Ordinances. 

You really should read the long list of stipulations we normally expect cell towers to comply with, but here is one example:

"Any tower or anenna located within any zoning district where permitted by specail administrative permit shall be set back a distance of one-third of the combined height of the towers and antenna or one hundred (100) feet, whichever is greater, except that where any such adjoining propery is used for resindental use, then said telecommunications tower or antenna shall be set back fromany such off-site struture in residential use, including any accessory structure designed for regular human use, a distance o one-half (1/2) the combined height of the tower and antenna or two hundred (200) feet, whichever is greater."

Several schools on the list for DeKalb County do not have the property to accomodate this requirement.  Is it going to take a lawsuit in order to make our government follow its own rules? 

IMPORTANT NOTE:  If your school is scheduled to get a cell tower, construction shall commense any day now so you should be on high alert.  If you plan to file an Appeal, you have only 30 days from the day that T-mobile and/or the School Board filed the application.  If you file your appeal documents without legal council and need help locating an attorney immediately afterward who can assist you, please email us at sayno2celltowers@yahoo.com and mark URGENT in the subject line.  Leave us a phone number where you can be reached and we will try to help you get in touch with someone who can help you from there.  If you are within the 30-day shot clock of the application date, your attorneys fees will likely be refunded at the end of the case.

As of time of this writing, there are 6 DeKalb schools with FCC Permits AND signed contracts by Super. Cheryl Atkinson in early December 2011, including: 

1. Jolly Elementary School, Clarkston; 
2. Smoke Rise Elementary School, Stone Mountain; 
3. Princeton Elementary School, Lithonia; 
4. Martin Luther King, Jr. High, Lithonia;
5. Flat Rock Elementary, Lithonia;
6. Margaret Harris Comprehensive School, Atlanta

There is one school, Briarlake Elementary School in Decatur, with a signed contract, but no FCC Permit appears on www.antennasearch.com under Unregistered Towers OR under New Application.   There is an existing structure listed as right next to the school, but GTCO-ATL was told by No Briarlake Tower, LLC that this is a satellite dish that is no longer is use, but is till showing up in its orginal location.   Upon reviewing the setback requirements (top of this article) in full, it is possible that even with the exemption and the Special Administrative Permit, Brairlake may not be a large enough campus to be able to comply with the safety standards, if T-mobile is electing to follow them.  It is possible that the FCC is not going to approve their permit application.  They should still be on the lookout for a county permit or varience application with the Office of Planning and Sustainability or with the Office of Public Works.

There are two schools that did not have signed contracts to be sent at the time of our Open Records Request recently, according to Walter Woods, spokesperson for DCSS.  He suggested we check back in a few weeks.   Those two schools are Narvie J. Harris Elementary School in Decatur and Lakeside High School in Atlanta.  GTCO-ATL predicted both of these schools would be removed from the cell tower list early on in the process. 

Erin Brockovich move over!

(click headline for full text)
The DeKalb School Watch Blog featured us back on August 4, 2011, in an article titled Get.the.Cell.Out and we just realized that we never linked to that write-up, which actually contained an excellent summary of what went down the evening of the DCSS vote.

Since the meeting summary and other details might be helpful to the people out there who might be just trying to catch up with everything, we thought it would be a good time to post a copy of that article here.  And, here is a link to their new site:  DeKalb School Watch Two.

Get.the.Cell.Out



Erin Brockovich move over!  We have a mom in town who has posted videos documenting the sheer volume of cell towers in the area in a convincing effort to ban them from school properties (there are at least 86 within a 4 mile radius of Brockett ES already).

As many of you are aware, the board contemplated a 30 year contract with T-Mobile (in the process of being acquired by AT&T) placing cell towers on 12 of our school properties. In exchange, each of the PTAs of those schools will get a one time $25,000 donation and the school system will collect monthly rent on the towers.

After serious community outcry, the board dropped three schools from the list (Brockett, Medlock and Meadowview), however plans were approved to build these monstrous structures on the remaining nine school properties.

Below are my notes from the July board meeting where the subject was discussed and then passed over the objections of Nancy Jester and Donna Edler.

McChesney proposes to remove Meadowview, Brockett and Medlock from the cell tower proposal for 12 schools. Question by Elder to McChesney. Why? McC - we've heard from these communities and they've been clear, so I'm supporting their opinion. Speaks: is there a grace period so that other communities can speak up but haven't had the opportunity [audience claps and Womack admonishes them]. Is there a mechanism for other communities to let the district know that they have an issue? Tyson - no option other than to pull the item. Womack: isn't there a 6 month window? Donahue: T-Mobile has 6 months for [due diligence]. Jester: concerned about many things. I don't like the timing - we didn't get this till Friday. Didn't get financials. Term is too long. I favor an opt in rather than opt out for communities. There may be others we haven't heard from so I am reticent to support.


Edler: Happy to speak on this matter - I've had concerns. Communities have cited health reasons. I rep district 7, but also entire county so I'm not one to pick and choose for health of a particular community. So if we take out 3, I suggest we take out all 12. [Applause and Womack again admonishes.] Lots more discussion. Roberts rules out the window. [Sorry - got distracted - missed some.] I think Edler took out all the others but Lakeside, Briarlake and Meadowview(?). I think Walker insisted on Roberts Rules. So Womack puts out original motion and takes off Brockett, Medlock and Meadowview. Vote. Passed 7-1. Whew!


Edler: Amendment to the motion. Remove the remaining schools we identified before: Jolly, Margaret Harris, MLK, Narvie, Princeton and Smokerise ES. Cunningham: we don't have towers at all in South DeKalb - we're losing signals left and right. We want towers. SCW: I agree. Meadowview is smack dab in the middle of a community. Cunningham can have towers since they have a lot of land, but Meadowview is in a community so yes, it needs removed from the list. Edler: It's not the school system's business to provide cell and internet service to the county.
Vote: on Edler's amendment - eliminates all towers. Motion fails.
Main motion with original amendment: Passes 6:2 (Edler and Jester)

Some of these communities are only going to get a cell tower because they weren't aware of the plan and/or didn't have the time or focus to organize a campaign against them. Apparently, there is still time to fight this action. Visit the newly formed Facebook page, Get.The.Cell.Out, for more info.
To view a map highlighting the locations of the towers, click here. (The locations removed from the list are indicated by a flag.)

UPDATE:
Here's the NEW link to the countywide survey:
Get the Cell Out of DeKalb County Schools

And here's a link to the FOX 5 report on the cell towers:

Opinions Divided Over Cell Towers at DeKalb Schools: MyFoxATLANTA.com

GTCO-ATL March on T-Mobile

(click headline for full text) 

The community members of Margaret Harris Comprehensive School for the disabled children of DeKalb County led a march today that started in their community, ran up LaVista Road and ended at the T-mobile sales location at the corner of Northlake Highway. 

This area of DeKalb County was first featured in our GTCO-ATL You-Tube video back in August 2011.  When we fought to have Brockett Elementary removed from the school board list, there were 86 cell towers in a 4-mile radius of our school. 

After the July 11 vote, we decided to stay involved with this issue and help other families who were likely not informed about the decision to place a tower near their home or school.   We released a YouTube video that we had originally expected we would need to continue our Brockett protest in front of the DeKalb County Office of Planning and Sustainability.

In May 2011 the Millers (pictured above as they went door to door
to gain petition signatures) were very much alone
on their road to uncovering the truth surrounding the
controversial decision by the DeKalb County School Board
to place cell phone towers on school grounds.

But, we were fortunate and several board members responded to our email and petition and voted yes on an ammendement that removed us from the list.  They also removed Medlock and Meadowview Elementary Schools.  The Medlock community had already been approached by T-mobile several months before the other schools and they were enticed with all kinds of promises like turning the tower into a monumnet with their mascot at the top  or making the tower look similar to a large pine tree.  Medlock's neighborhood association members were not interested and that likely led to the next approach T-mobile took  in this process.

At the end of the 2011 school term, when parents and kids are very busy, there are lots of papers coming home everyday, activities to attend at school and vacation plans in the works, the DCSS threw a monkey wrench into things for a lot of people.  A flyer came home in the backpacks of the kids that announced meetings about cell tower coverage that would be held at several school locations. 

"It was not until after the meeting that we learned the true intent was to place a tower at our school," says Cheryl Miller, GTCO-ATL co-founder.  "And every day since I learned that fact I have been involved in some way in this whole cell tower nightmare."

Today, they were joined by hundreds of protesters from all over the county who marched from their schools to
congregate outside a T-mobile location near Northlake Mall in Atlanta.

A big concern for Miller and her husband Paul was that the meetings were obviously intended to garner low attendence.  The Millers say that threw up red flags for both of them, so they set out to figure out what the school board thought they would have objected to, if they had actually attended the meeting.

"If one single person would have approached us to say this is why you should not be concerned about the cell tower and here is a list of the good things it will do for your school, I think we would have both been relieved and said 'Thanks.'  And that would be the end of it," said Paul Miller.

Instead the Millers have reported a plethora of conflicting stories and explanations that they received to their questions that range from officers of their PTA on up to the county commissioners and the DeKalb Office of Planning and Sustainability and CEO's office, which should normally be overseeing the zoning regulations on issues like these.

"With every step we took to try to figure out what was going on, we just found out more and more bad news," said Cheryl Miller.  "Bad for the parents, bad for the children and bad for the taxpayers of our county.  It has to end somewhere."

Local communities have printed signs to mark their
communities as being clearly against the cell tower
decision which has helped bring even  more awareness to
others in the county who may not have heard about the
issue or how the residents feel about being left out
of the decision-making process.

In the meantime, Miller stated, they will continue to follow the issue until the end, whatever that may be.  So, today's march was more of a step in the process than it was a victory for the Millers.

"We've wanted to hold a march to draw attention to T-mobile's poor citizenship and greed almost from the very beginning.  So, we were very happy to finally see that part of our mission realized today with the help of the awesome communities who are fighting on behalf of their schools."

Paul Miller says it is unfortunate that the towers may start going up as early at Jan. 12, the due diligence deadline assumed if there were inital contracts signed under Ramona Tyson back  in July as was indicated would be the case at the time.  He said it has been the most difficult to reach some of the South DeKalb schools who may not have as much ready access to computers and have unfortunately been overlooked by the more organized groups like the PTA-driven Briarlake and neighborhood association-driven Margaret Harris. 

Even Lakeside High School, which reportedly initiated the request with the school system to provide them with better cell phone reception, has a community action group assembled to protest the towers.  The issues surrounding the Get the Cell Out mission have been documented and discussed in a popular blog that has muliple contribors and invites discussion and feedback.  It is located at www.GETtheCELLoutATL.org.  From there, you can acess the countywide petition: www.thepetitionsite.com/1/GTCO-ATL,  to protest the cell towers slated for these public schools, along with Martin Luther King, Jr. High, Narvie J. Harris, Princeton, Jolly, Smoke Rise and Flat Rock.

The cell tower battle in DeKalb County has remained in
front of the public for months on end as the protest
continues to gain more momentum and the D.A. is reportedly
investigating the School Board for criminal activity.

The Millers have also worked with several groups in an effort to spread the word in South and Central DeKalb such as Unhappy Tazpayer and Voter, Concerned Citizens of South DeKalb and CHASE (Citizens for a Healthy and Safe Environment).
"We believe the key to stopping these towers is to unite the county in protest and show solidarity for the cause regardless of how any of the schools may feel about each other or how they think about various other issues," he says.  "We have studied how these deals go down in other parts of the country and the basic tactic that wins every time is 'divide and conquer.'"

He says they have tried to stay a step ahead of T-mobile, but that effort will not be successful if the DeKalb Planning Department or CEO does not get more involved.  The immediate concern is the claims being made that the school board can exempt T-mobile from our local zoning laws.  The next conccern is that the permit they plan to issue is one that does not require public input. So, the neighborhoods that were already overlooked by the school boad will again be ignored by the county.

"It kind of makes you wonder what you pay taxes for, or why we are fighting in a war to protect our rights if we are willing to give them up so easily, doesn't it?" says Miller. 

Miller states that through their group Get the Cell Out - Atlanta Chapter, they have been able to notify and reach out to all the affected communities and have assisted many of them with the process of sharing information with each other.  The result has uncovered a lot of information and conflicting stories that may even catch the attention of the District Attorney or Special Grand Jury in light of their recent announcement that they are looking at the DeKalb School Board very closely.

Children at elementary schools across DeKalb County, who are likely too young to really know what a cell tower is, are getting an early education on the right to peaceful protest.  Parents say they are saddened that they have to teach their kids this lesson with an issue that involves their own school.  These children at Briarlake Elementary School in Decatur will likely lose their playground or their outdoor classroom as a result of the school board's actions.

While the Millers say they applaud the efforts of the schools who participated in the demonstration today, they want to remind every school to be vigilant in keeping an eye out for any activity on the proposed sites and continue to hound the zoning office until they get some answers about the permit process.

The next step?  The Millers say they can't reveal all of their game plan, mainly because it can change from day to day depending on what is learned or what T-mobile does next.  But, they have suggested that the fight will continue and is actually gaining credibility. 

There might be legal battles ahead for some communities while the Millers are hoping to make positive contributions to the future. 

"We hope to work together with our state legislators to enact some type of law or referendum either locally or statewide to stop this process from repeating itself," says Cheryl Miller.  "We're seeing more progressive states like Californina and admired the progress they are making in order to protect their children and that's what we hope to be able to do here."

For more, see this story at CBS Atlanta:  http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/16469365/dekalb-co-parents-protest-against-cell-towers-on-campuses

Clarkston's Mayor Ransom Pledges Support

Parents and homeowners who live near Jolly Elementary in Clarkston, Narvie J. Harris Elementary in Decatur and Briarlake Elementary in Decatur have agreed to work together with a united front to stop the construction of cell towers at their local schools.

Mayor Emanuel Ransom of the City of Clarkston gave the welcome at the Informational Town Hall meeting held Sept. 24. To the applause of the attendees, Mayor Ransom stated, “You have my full support."

He discussed his personal viewpoint regarding the safety of cell towers and his concerns about siting them too close to schools and homes. He also questioned why the school board had changed its viewpoint regarding cell towers as they had voted to take the item off the agenda in 2006 when it was proposed by supporters at Lakeside High School as a revenue-generating idea. He educated everyone on the fact that the DeKalb County Board of Education had also denied the approval of a cell tower at the Clarkston Community Center years earlier since they were the property owners even though the members of the center had wanted the tower.

Don Broussard, a former member of the DeKalb County Planning Commission, told parents and concerned residents at a Sept. 24 town hall meeting in Clarkston that the county can approve the cell towers through a Special Land Use Permit or a Special Administrative Permit.

“Whenever I see the words ‘special administrative permit,’ my lights go off,” Broussard said.

“That’s a nice way for saying, ‘We can do a deal in the back room.’ No public review, there is no public notice, apparently there are some standards you meet for the permit.”

The representatives from the schools present asked questions of the panel, which included the Mayor along with representatives from the DeKalb County Planning Commission, the non-profit organization Unhappy Taxpayer and Voter and Get the Cell Out - Atlanta Chapter, a grassroots organization formed to help citizens wishing to oppose the towers.

The attendees gathered after the meeting to discuss ideas and exchange contact information so that they can form an action plan to educate more parents and homeowners about how cell towers in residential communities will decrease DeKalb’s quality of life, increase health risks, and decrease property values.

If you want to oppose the construction of cell towers at your local school, or speak out against cell towers on school grounds in DeKalb in general, please contact Viola Davis at 770-256-0034 or email voterwhocares@gmail.com and/or Cheryl Miller at sayno2celltowers@yahoo.com.

The countywide petition can be signed at: www.getthecelloutatl.org or at www.thepetitionsite.com/1/GTCO-ATL. Your name can be annoymous online and email addresses or other contact details are never disclosed. Please mention any of the schools by name in the comments section if you have specific concerns.

Schools on the list to receive towers include: Jolly Elementary (Clarkston), Narvie J. Harris Elementary (Decatur), Briarlake Elementary (Decatur), Margart Harris Comprehensive School (Atlanta), M.L. King, Jr. High School (Lithonia), Princeton Elementary (Lithonia), Flat Rock Elementary (Lithonia), Lakeside High School (Atlanta) and Smoke Rise Elementary School (Stone Mountain).