By Brian Zanzonico
With a Sept. 28 hearing date looming for Omnipoint Communications, Inc./T-Mobile's application to erect a 65-foot cell tower and ground-level communications equipment in the Franklin Bridge Centre's rear parking lot, residents have just weeks to collect the estimated $15,000 it will take to hire three experts to convince the Hempstead Town Board of Zoning Appeals that the cell tower doesn't belong near their homes. Residents maintain that the tower, which Omnipoint/T-Mobile spokesman Joe Walsh said would be disguised as a flag pole, would be an eyesore, and that health questions still remain about long-term exposure to radio frequency waves.
Ron Lipsky, leader of the Franklin Square United Neighborhood Association, a group formed to organize the opposition, said that, ideally, the 6 p.m. protest next Friday will accomplish two things, putting pressure on the Franklin Bridge Center landlord, Umberto Polsinelli of Garden City, to nix the application, and raising more money.
Polsinelli did not return calls for comment.
As of Sept. 1, the group's war chest was well below what is needed. "If we can have experts, then we can put on a case," Lipsky said. "It's important to raise money to hire experts."
Lipsky estimated that hiring a radio frequency engineer to comment on the need for the tower, a landscape architect to perform a visual impact study and an attorney would take a minimum of $15,000.
The figure has apparently scared off some residents. Lipsky said it has been a battle to raise money, and a door-to-door campaign was planned for the long Labor Day weekend. With the hearing just weeks away, Lipsky said that time is running out.
Franklin Square resident Mike Giordano, a T-Mobile subscriber, said neighbors should save their money. A supporter of the tower, he said his phone reception is so poor that he has to leave his house and walk to the corner to get enough power bars to make a call. When he called Omnipoint/T-Mobile to complain, he said he was told that the reason for the poor reception is a lack of cell towers. He said the tower is a need that overrides the concerns of its opponents.
"I can't understand," Giordano said. "They say it devalues their property, but it's only a pole and a couple of electrical boxes with equipment on the ground. It's very aggravating."
Walsh said the need for the tower has been driven by complaints from Franklin Square subscribers like Giordano who say service has been a problem.
Help from officials
Lipsky said that his group's cause received a boost last week when Town Councilman Ed Ambrosino and Legislator Vincent Muscarella agreed to send letters to their constituents, advising them of the Sept. 15 protest and the Sept. 28 hearing at Town Hall in Hempstead.
"Unfortunately, cell phones are a part of life," Ambrosino said. "But I stand with the people and think that a cell tower doesn't belong in a residential community."
Some residents said they can win without bringing in experts, citing a 2005 victory by their neighbors across town. Late last year, residents on the Franklin Square-Garden City South border teamed up to thwart the same cell company's proposal to install antennas on the West Hempstead Water District tower at 7th Street and Roxbury Road. Citing health concerns and saying that the tower, which replaced an old, decaying model in 2004, was an "eyesore," a group of neighbors started a petition-writing campaign and lobbied local officials to join the effort. As a result, the water district's Board of Commissioners resolved to deny Omnipoint and all communications businesses licenses to install antennas on the site.
But Ambrosino said the two cases couldn't be more different, explaining that the Franklin Bridge Centre application may not be as easily defeated. "Last year you were dealing with the public sector," Ambrosino said. "Now it's the private sector. It's a whole new ballgame."
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