By Scott Brinton
Pull quote: "This truly was a community effort to stop Sprint from erecting a tower at this location."
Ed Grilli,
Civic activist
Merrick residents rejoiced last week after receiving official word that cell-phone giant Sprint PCS had pulled its application to build a transmission tower across from Chatterton Elementary School.
For a year, civic groups, particularly the Merrick Park, Central Merrick and Merrick Gables homeowners associations, protested construction of the 10-story tower at the Granite Building along Merrick Avenue. Meanwhile, Sprint's hearings with the Hempstead Town Board of Zoning Appeals over the tower were adjourned again and again.
Residents said they feared that the cell-tower antennae might pose a health risk to children at Chatterton. Some studies have suggested a link between radio-frequency radiation, which the antennae emit, and cancer. To date, however, no proof exists to back the assertion, and the 1996 federal Telecommunications Act prohibits municipalities from considering health when deciding where to site cell towers.
Ed Grilli, a civic leader who vigorously fought the Merrick tower, said, "This truly was a community effort to stop Sprint from erecting a tower at this location."
Michele Walsh, president of the 150-member Central Merrick Association, said, "I'm extremely pleased. A lot of people put in a lot of hard work to ensure that the children of the school would remain safe and also to ensure local residents' property values."
Derek Donnelly, president of the Merrick Gables Association, said, the protest effort shows "how, if we all stick together, we can get positive results."
Many residents worried that the mere perception that a cell tower might harm children at Chatterton would send property values plummeting. In a town BZA hearing about a North Bellmore tower last week, a realtor testified that the 100-foot monopole would decrease surrounding home prices by 5 percent.
Also speaking out against the planned Merrick tower were state Sen. Charles Fuschillo, Nassau County Executive Thomas Gulotta and county Legis. David Denenberg, all of whom live in Merrick. In fact, two of Sen. Fuschillo's three children attend Chatterton.
As to why Sprint withdrew its bid to build the tower, company spokesman Larry McDonnell said that, as a policy, "Sprint wants very much to work with the community. When the community tells us that we're at a site they're not comfortable with, we're going to do our best to look for options that are best for us and the community."
Kathleen Dunleavy, regional Sprint spokeswoman, said, "Things were not moving along with that particular site. We decided we would continue to explore other options."
Grilli, who is a member of the town's Cell Phone Task Force, said that Sprint was eyeing two other Merrick sites as possible locations for cellular antennae. One is the Long Island Rail Road parking lot at Merrick Avenue and Sunrise Highway. The other is the wooded lot between Sunrise Highway and the LIRR trestle between Merrick Avenue and Babylon Turnpike.
Grilli, who proposed building near the railroad, said the idea is to erect antennae atop existing high-tension electrical poles, which measure roughly 100 feet tall.
"The last thing [the cell companies] want to do is build from the ground up. It's expensive," Grilli said. "They lease space. When necessary, they build from the ground up, but that's the last alternative."
Sprint is now negotiating with the Metropolitan Transit Authority to hang antennae atop a high-tension pole in Merrick. If successful, the company could set a precedent with the MTA that would allow antennae to be erected atop such poles in communities across the South Shore, Grilli said.
Dunleavy declined to offer specifics about Sprint's negotiations with the MTA. "We are still very hopeful about that opportunity," she said. "Right now, we are still working very closely with the MTA." A Metropolitan Transit Authority representative could not be reached for comment.
Grilli said the Cell Phone Task Force is drafting an ordinance that would streamline the approval process with the Town of Hempstead for cell-phone towers, provided cell companies build them away from residential neighborhoods, particularly near schools.
As a task-force member, Grilli is also seeking to extend neighborhood notification when a cell tower is proposed for a community. Current town code requires that neighbors within 100 feet of a proposed site receive a written notice. Grilli wants to see that zone stretched to three or four times the height of a proposed cell tower, which in most cases would measure 300 to 400 feet.
