By Brian Zanzonico
More than 40 residents descended on Hempstead Town Hall June 21 to oppose Omnipoint Communications Inc.'s application to install six wireless communication antennas inside a 65-foot-tall light pole and ground-level equipment cabinets behind the Franklin Bridge Centre on Dogwood Avenue in Franklin Square.
Resident Bruno Caracciolo, acting as the residents' spokesman, asked Hempstead Zoning Board Chairman Gerald Wright for a postponement so neighbors could have time to hire an attorney to represent them. Caracciolo also requested that board members schedule the hearing for the evening so people who work during the day can attend. Most people in attendance were retirees and mothers with young children in tow.
Wright said he wanted to be certain that was the consensus among the residents on hand, and he called a five-minute recess so the group could confer and the board could check the calendar. Caraccciolo came back and announced that the residents were unanimous in their desire to have the hearing postponed. Wright said that because of the crowded calendar, the next possible date would be Sept. 28 at noon. That would require board members to come to Town Hall on a Thursday; meetings are typically on Wednesdays.
Omnipoint representative Al Amato said the company would present new plans to the board that would relocate the tower on the opposite side of the rear lot. Amato also countered residents' claims that the tower would be unsightly, as it would be disguised as a flag pole.
Residents said their concerns go beyond aesthetics. "No one objects to a flag pole," said Caracciolo's wife, Nancy. "A lot of people in the neighborhood have flag poles. But a cell phone tower belongs in a part of town where there are not homes all around."
Residents said they are concerned about the effects the tower may have on their health, and they hope to have the same success against Omnipoint that their neighbors on the Franklin Square-Garden City South border had against the company late last year. Residents there teamed up to defeat Omnipoint's proposal to install antennas on the West Hempstead Water District tower on 7th Street and Roxbury Road. Fearful of the long-term health implications from antenna radiation and adamantly opposed to the tower becoming an "eyesore," a group of neighbors started a petition-writing campaign and lobbied local officials to join their fight. Their persistence resulted in the water district's Board of Commissioners resolving to deny Omnipoint - and all communications businesses - licenses to install antennas on the site.
"The cell phone era is in its infancy," said a resident, who declined to be identified, at the June 21 meeting. "There is no way of knowing the effects of exposure to a cell tower 20 years down the road."
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