By:John C. O'Connell
Dever School parents oppose Sprint PCS plan
Dever Elementary School parents are incensed that Sprint PCS plans to build a 100-foot cell tower next to their children's school on Corona Avenue in northeastern Valley Stream and are collecting signatures to prevent it. By Tuesday night, parents had obtained more than 500 such signatures going door to door in the neighborhood.
The cell tower needs approval by the Town of Hempstead Zoning Board of Appeals, and parents plan to protest at a hearing May 2 at Town Hall.
Sprint plans "to erect [a] 100-foot-high monopole and install nine wireless communication antennas thereon, and install equipment cabinets on ground" on the east side of Corona Avenue, 114 feet south of Blakeman Drive, running through to Franklin Avenue, according to a legal notice published by the town. LIPA, which owns the property, is leasing the space to Sprint.
The cell tower would stand between the James A. Dever School and Franklin Hospital Medical Center and its adjacent nursing home, the Orzac Geriatric Division.
Cell towers, needed to enable cell phone communication, have met with community resistance throughout the country. Neighbors are often afraid that microwave transmissions might be found to cause disease, charges that industry officials strongly dispute.
"I think this is totally despicable that a company would erect a cell tower next to a school playground and a hospital," said parent Lisa Brigagliano. "I think they blatantly have no regard for the safety of the children or the people in the hospital."
The James A. Dever School PTA, whose members live in Malverne and North Valley Stream, invited representatives of Sprint to discuss plans at a meeting at Dever Monday night. Having gotten no indication from the company that it will change its plans, parents are urging residents to write letters to the board of zoning appeals, LIPA and Sprint.
"I feel that Sprint and LIPA have no regard for our children," said Pamela Arata, who has two children in the District 13 school and lives two blocks from it. "They want to put that pole there, and it's not their children in the backyard playing."
The matter will be on the agenda of the zoning board hearing at 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 2, at the town meeting pavilion, Town of Hempstead Plaza, 1 Washington St., Hempstead.
A Sprint spokesperson responded to parents' complaints when contacted by The Herald. "We have proposed to build a monopole on a LIPA substation in North Valley Stream and we have been working closely with the community. We recently [Monday] had a meeting with the PTA," said Kathleen Dunleavy speaking for Sprint, "where we brought in a health and safety expert to talk about how the cellular technology works and also talked to the residents about how the emissions are actually hundreds of times below those that are regulated as safe by the FCC [Federal Communications Commissions].
"And we have a hearing on May 2," Dunleavy continued, "and we are hoping to continue working with the community on this. We have a demand from our customers to provide additional coverage in the North Valley Stream area."
LIPA expressed a conciliatory position on Tuesday. "We are working right now with Sprint and the community to try a suitable alternative location for that tower," said Michael Lowdes, a LIPA spokesperson. "The parents are very upset and we have had conversations with them on this. We intend to work very closely with Sprint and the community to find another, alternate appropriate site." Lowdes could not say if Sprint would withdraw its application before the Town zoning board, nor could he say that the Dever School site is off the table.
"If that's true than LIPA understands what it means to be a good neighbor," said Cindy Mevorach, a Dever parent from Malverne. "Sprint unfortunately has yet to show the same sensitivity; but make no mistake, this community will never stand for a cell tower positioned between vulnerable children and a hospital. They could not have picked a worse spot.
Sprint's Dunleavy, when told of the LIPA position by The Herald, said that, "We're always open to alternatives if something develops and we're unable to pursue the current site.
"The issue is that our engineers go into a community and they have very rigid guidelines that they need to consider" when placing the monopoles, she said. "We are open to looking for alternatives if we're able to meet the needs that we have in terms of getting our coverage to our customers."
Dever PTA co-president Jeanne Jacobs said Sprint must find a more suitable location. "There is concern in the community as to what effects these towers, which are essentially so new to our environment, will have on our children, who spend so much of their time in the building and on the playground, which is practically right under this tower if it's built.
"Sprint is fully aware of the feelings of the community on this, and must know that it would be doing this with great opposition to this project," Jacobs said.
District 13 Board of Education president Valerie Clerico said Wednesday morning, after Tuesday night's board meeting, that "the board has passed a resolution to send a representative to the Town Zoning Board hearing May 2 to object to the location of the cell tower. We're not objecting to cell towers, per se, but we question the wisdom of having it placed so close to the school."
Doreen Rossi has children at Dever. "I'm frightened. Not only is it affecting the school that both my children go to, plus all the whole community, but my house is right here also. We've been living here for six years and we'd like not to plan to go anywhere else."
Rossi plans on going to the zoning board meeting. "People even spoke last night, as well as stressing their point about the health issue, that they would even consider not being with Sprint anymore. One lady said, if that's where they need to be hit, as far as money, and that's all they know, then that's where we're going to hit them, and hard.
"[Sprint] seemed pretty confident that this is going to happen regardless of how the community feels," Rossi said. "I don't even know if they got in touch with the hospital. I know that the homes on the street, Midvale Lane, were not contacted."
A spokesperson for Franklin Hospital Medical Center, Bruce Beaver, said that the hospital's position is that if the North Valley Stream/Malverne community is against the cell tower, the hospital is against the tower.
Sprint may have a strong legal argument in persuading the zoning board to see things its way. While residents cite possible health risks emanating from such towers, the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 forbids localities from considering health and safety issues whose validity have not been proven.
Third District Nassau County Legis. John Ciotti said he opposes the cell tower. "Most of us are drawn to our communities by the outstanding quality of life here, which is totally at odds with the visually assaulting presence of the proposed tower. ... Many residents have expressed to me their legitimate and rightful concerns with respect to the long-term health impacts of these towers. I recognize that the federal Telecommunications Act makes it very difficult to prevent the siting of these towers, but I believe it is inappropriate to place a cell tower at this location," Ciotti said.
"I think they should put [towers] in an industrial area, away from children. The other thing is, it's near a hospital. I think this is wrong."
County Legis. Vincent Muscarella, who attended the meeting Monday night with Ciotti, said Sprint should listen to the people. "While we understand Sprint's desire to expand its cell-phone coverage, Sprint should exercise some corporate responsibility and abandon the effort to place it in close proximity to an elementary school and a hospital. Despite all the assurances that these towers are safe, every day brings us new information. I don't know whether they're safe or not. Back in the 1970s we were all presented with the miracle substance, asbestos. Yesterday's safe technology sometimes becomes today's health hazards. Therefore, to take the risk next to an elementary school is irresponsible.
State assemblymen Robert Barra and Thomas Alfano wrote a letter to the zoning board saying that Sprint's "application is ill conceived and poorly planned for this particular site. ... Many studies have found links between cellular transmission and human health development hazards. ... As the state legislative leaders of this community ... and as residents of the North Valley Stream and Malverne communities, respectively, we strongly urge this board to reject this application. We would reject this request based upon medical, site selection and community impact considerations."
