RSS 2.0 FeedFebruary 24, 2011, Bellmore Life
Residents say no to new North Bellmore cell tower
State legislation in works to adhere to town regulations.
Four’s company, but...five’s a crowd!
That’s how many cell towers North Bellmore would boast if the state proceeds with a proposal to construct a 120-foot monopole at the corner of Bellmore Road and Southern State Parkway, a project that brought loud jeers from over 90 residents last week during a meeting between them and state representatives in Mepham High School’s auditorium.
Residents came armed and ready with reasons why the state should not put up the new cell tower it is proposing to place on a tree-marked 50-foot by 65-foot abutment to the Bellmore Road overpass: unsightliness, intrusion into residents’ front yards, further endangerment of bird species, the still-unresolved questions about health, who gets revenue from the tower and public opposition from public officials.
Adding to the urgency, Wayne Edwards, representing state Senator Charles J. Fuschillo Jr., told the audience the senator was set to introduce legislation requiring the state to follow town zoning laws, such as the one in place in the Town of Hempstead that restricts cell tower building, but it may not pass in time to thwart this latest effort.
State Assemblyman Tom McKevitt said he would introduce a similar bill in the Assembly, saying “the state is immune to town zoning.”
Jacqueline Phillips Murray, an attorney representing Crown Communications, which installs cell towers for the state, told the audience that the idea of the single-shared resource monopole tower first took root in 1997 to build such towers on state-owned land “along the state’s rights of way and where service is needed by state agencies.”
Seventy such towers exist throughout the state, she said.
She noted that the top 10 feet of the tower were restricted for state agencies for traffic monitoring, emergency communications for public safety agencies and for communications among other agencies.
Mobile phone carriers would then be added, at their request.
“This is only an early proposal, we are early in the process,” Ms. Murray said. “We are here to hear your responses to it.”
North Bellmore resident Richard Schary, a member of four Nassau County environmental committees, invoked the memory of Robert Moses, who designed Long Island’s parkway system, asking if he would be happy to see such “monstrosities along the parkway,” which he commented are actually linear parks.
Legislator Dave Denenberg asked those in attendance if they were for the tower. All shouted out “No!”
Citing the cell tower installed by the state at the south corner of Sunrise Highway and Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway as being opposed by residents but still put up, Mr. Denenberg said to state representatives, “You didn’t comply with the residents then, let’s make sure you comply with the residents now.” The audience again cheered. “Make us part of the selection process,” he said.
“You might be the first person to ever come to North Bellmore to talk to us about cell towers,” said Lisa Schary – recently voted a Woman of Distinction – to Ms. Murray.
It’s in the trees
One attendee said the 50-foot by 65-foot square parcel of tree-studded land was “part of the contour of the parkway, as it was built by Robert Moses when cars went 30 miles-per-hour.”
Another attendee asked Ms. Murray why the state picked the intersection in North Bellmore. She said the site would be thoroughly reviewed for its environmental impact, its impact on home values and again reiterated that the state was at the meeting only to get residents’ comments on the site. She also said she hoped residents might be able to offer other suggestions for other sites for the cell tower, if it was their wish.
“How about the Southern State Parkway at the corner of Wantagh Parkway?” asked Michael Sperling. “There are no homes in the vicinity.”
When Mr. Sperling asked about removal of the trees, Ms. Murray said the area was largely a cleared area to begin with, which lead to more jeering.
Mr. Sperling, a member of the Audubon Society, then offered surprising information from the state that two of three species of birds that frequent the wooded area the state wants to clear for the cell tower are “species of special consideration under the state endangered species act”: Cooper’s hawk and the sharp-shinned hawk.
He added that he has often seen the less-threatened red-tailed hawk in the trees as well.
“There are lovely birds in North Bellmore, and I would not want to move into a neighborhood where a cell tower takes away from the character of the neighborhood,” such as trees, said Brad Jacobs.
Merrick activist Bob Young put focus on the open-space issue. “By putting this cell tower in a residential area, the state just wants to commercialize open space,” he said. “Let’s not sell away our last rights to open space in Nassau County,” he added.
Sal Sanseverino stepped up to the podium and introduced himself as a former president of the Communication Workers of America, a union of telecommunications workers.
Health concerns still paramount
He noted that just 20 years ago the talk was all about the lasting effects of cell phones to health. “If you put a cell tower up it should be nowhere near a person’s home. We have places where we can put up a cell tower,” he said, “but they should not be within a mile of houses.”
Members of the audience quickly recalled the federal government’s claim that the September 11 World Trade Center rubble was safe to work on until learning much later the opposite was true, proving there was still much more to learn from still-incomplete studies of effects of microwave radiation on the body.
The government saying that there is nothing to worry about is wrong, Mr. Sanseverino concluded.
North Bellmore resident Janice Jacobs said of the proposed cell tower that “It is right out our front yard” on Bismarck Avenue. “I worry for the safety of my children,” she said, “because studies still aren’t conclusive, so there could be a problem in the future.”
Her husband Brad spoke of how the neighborhood that was once sold by Realtors as a residential area would now become more commercialized with the cell tower.
Gal and Emil Petschauer of Bismarck Avenue spoke of the concern of home values going down, and of the aesthetics of the neighborhood changing with a 120-foot cell tower in its midst.
