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To the Tower
USA Created: 28 Apr 2007
Bayville Village Hall’s stuffy meeting room was filled to capacity on the evening of Monday, April 23rd. Residents had turned out to witness the Village Board of Trustees determine if the Nassau County Police Department would be allowed to install a new, T-band, digital turnkey radio system on its water tower at 34 School Street in Bayville.

The county government has been pressuring the village and 23 other Long Island municipalities to make their water towers available for a communication system that the county maintains is a necessary emergency tool. The county’s argues that the system would provide a greater and much-needed level of inter-operability with other governments and emergency services. The current level would prove devastating in the event of a natural or manmade disaster, the county has said.

The system would mean adding two electromagnetic microwave dishes and four RF antennas to the top of the tower, and a generator and a 12’x 24’ shelter at the base. Already, there are approximately 40 antennas already on top of the tower (this is according to the village, which takes its numbers from Motorola, which has contracted with the county to install the island-wide system).

More than a few village residents have been outspoken that radiation from the equipment poses a potential safety hazard. These fears have been exacerbated by the fact that the water tower sits across the street from the Bayville Primary School.

Within five minutes of the pledge of allegiance, the vote had been taken and the board moved on to other matters. Trustees Paul McBride and Paul Rupp voted against allowing the equipment to go up; the rest of the board – Mayor Victoria Siegel and trustees Timothy Horgan, Carol Kennedy, John Laurine and Douglas Watson – voted in favor of it.

A murmur went through the crowd as the board swiftly opened up a hearing on the village budget. Comments or questions on the antenna issue were prohibited until the other town business was concluded and the podium opened to the public. Mayor Siegel ordered one man’s removal from the room after he refused to wait.

At the podium

“How can you possibly say yes, when so many residents here are saying no?” Bayville resident Jo-Tina De Gennaro asked the trustees when the floor was opened.

Ms. De Gennaro said that she did not quarrel with the need for more effective communications for Nassau’s first responders. But, she said, waves from the microwave dishes put the children across the street in danger every day, rather than only during emergencies.

Scientists are still studying whether or not waves from the disks are harmful, she said, adding, “If it wasn’t controversial, why would they?”

Ms. De Gennaro asked that three steps be taken: 1) the public be allowed to vote on the issue 2) the antennas be moved away from the school 3) an independent study be conducted on potential harmful effects of the system.

She intimated that the only other option would be for members of the community to take the village to court to prove that the equipment on the tower is prohibited under the 1950 deed giving the property to the village.

The deed states that “no commercial enterprises shall be permitted thereon and, in addition, no use of the premises shall be made or permitted which would be offensive, dangerous or obnoxious to the owners or any owner (now or hereafter) of land within a radius of one-quarter of a mile of the premises…”

The village board has said that it understood from its legal counsel that the provisos of the deed had expired by the time the equipment went up.

Ms. De Gennaro received a standing ovation when she concluded her remarks.

The third request she had made was a reference to the study carried out by Planning and Research Consulting Associates (PARC Associates). The study found that the radiation generated from the tower would be less than one-tenth the level allowed by US Federal Communications Commission guidelines.

The study

Supporters of the equipment going up on the tower have pointed to findings by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to back up their contention that the health risks are negligible to none.

A communications industry analyst contacted for a story on the subject last week said that PARC Associates is correct that point-to-point microwave communication is not harmful to people on the ground. “They [the microwave dishes] do not transmit in an omnidirectional manner like cellular base stations," he said.

Some have questioned the extent to which the PARC Associates study should be trusted, as it was paid for by Motorola.

Mayor Victoria Siegel said that the study was commissioned by the village and that the village had only decided afterwards that Motorola – rather than village taxpayers – should pay for it.

All of those who spoke at the meeting more or less uttered the same sentiments as Ms. De Gennaro.

When one resident asked what sort of veto power village residents might have and if a referendum was possible, Mayor Siegel replied, “Your recourse is court.”
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Source: Northender - Oyster Bay,NY, Brian Brennan, 27 Apr 2007

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