ONLINE EDITION FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 14, 2001

News

Village of Mineola Mayor John P. Colbert and the village board are joining forces with their fellow residents in a fight for change. Their opponent is a worthy one - the Telecommunications Act of 1996, enacted by the federal government.

The village's tough stand comes as a result of four applications submitted by cellular phone companies to erect antennas on three different locations in the village. Verizon Wireless submitted an application to erect antennas on a LIPA tower. Nextel submitted two applications to have antennas erected at 250 Jericho Turnpike and 393 Jericho Turnpike and Sprint applied to also have antennas erected on 250 Old Country Road.

The safety and health risks of rays emitted by cellular phone antennas have long been a debatable topic, although there doesn't appear to be definitive proof that the rays are, in fact, either safe or harmless. However, the residents and the village board apparently do not want to take the risk.

At public hearing for each of the applications, residents expressed their fear of the unknown, of the potential dangers of the cellphone rays. Residents, therefore, say they do not want their homes situated in an area they do not feel safe in. Walter Crosby, former chief of the Mineola Fire Department and a resident of Maple Place, where cellphone antennas are already situated, said that over the years he has watched 11 of his friends and neighbors receive a cancer diagnosis. Crosby is vehemently opposed to the presence of more cellphone antennas and has circulated petitions around the village, obtaining over 1,000 signatures from residents who also do not want more antennas.

The mayor and the board, through questions presented at the hearings, share the same concerns as the residents. However, the village board simply cannot deny the applications based on their safety concerns and potential health risks. The Telecommunication Act of 1996, enacted by the federal government, forbids villages from denying these applications based on safety and health concerns, since such concerns fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), the law states.

FCC jurisdiction over safety and health concerns has put many local municipalities with citizens opposed to cellular antennas in a bind. Denying these applications often results in costly lawsuits.

However, in the Village of Mineola, Mayor Colbert and the board of trustees have decided to take a stand against the federal government by appealing to Congress and the Senate to give decisions concerning cellphone antennas, which affect quality of life, back to local government. "Villages were formed so that we can form our own quality of life," said Mayor Colbert, expressing his sentiments and those of the board.

The mayor feels as though the federal government, through the Telecommunications Act, has taken away the freedom of the residents of Mineola to determine their quality of life. "I'm not against 21st century technology, but we also have to be able to say what we want and what we don't want," Mayor Colbert said.

Based on a resolution passed by the village board at last Wednesday's public meeting of the board of trustees, the Board of Trustees of the Incorporated Village of Mineola will act as representatives of the citizens of the village in petitioning the United States Congress to repeal a portion of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The resolution, which was passed by the board, seeks to repeal the portion "which grants to the Federal Communications Commission preemptive authority over local governments relative to the environmental health effects of radio frequency emissions produced by telecommunications antennas so that the citizens of each local community will be permitted to consider such health effects in making determinations and recommendations as to the placement and number of antennas in their communities."

While the mayor could not attend Wednesday's meeting because of an illness, he wrote a letter, which was read by Deputy Mayor Lou Santosus. In the letter, the mayor states, "The Telecommunications Act of 1996 removes a great deal of authority from local governments, authority essential to the preservation of the quality of life in our village. In particular, the act grants the FCC preemptive power over Mineola in determining the environmental effects of antennas, particularly with respect to health issues. I find this preemption to be an affront to our democratic form of government. It is essential that our citizens have a say in issues which will possibly affect their health and very lives."

The mayor and the board will send letters along with Crosby's petitions to Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, Senator Charles Schumer and Senator Hillary Clinton in hopes of having the law changed so that decisions concerning cellphone antennas are put back in the hands of the local municipalities.

It is certain that had the applications been left in the hands of the village, the Mineola Village Board would have denied them already. "As an elected official, I must listen to my people," Mayor Colbert said.

The mayor is also concerned that he hasn't been told how many antennas are in the village and exactly where they are located. The only way to find that out may be to send out an expedition.

An appeal to Congress and the Senate may be the village's last course of action. However, at the last village board meeting (Sept. 5) they did vote to give all four pending applications a State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) unlisted designation.

Under the environmental review process, there are certain steps that are taken. One step in the review process is to send the four cellphone antenna applications to the Nassau County Planning Commission for its recommendation. That recommendation will come back to the village board and then the board is able to vote on the application. "This is not an approval or disapproval of the cell tower antennas. It is following the regulations of the State Environmental Quality Review Act relative to the application," said Village Attorney John Spellman.

In making the SEQRA determination, the board recognizes the environmental significance of the cellphone antennas and the radio frequency (RF) waves they would be emitting. In taking a stand against the federal government's jurisdiction over potential environmental risks that come with the cellphone antennas, the village board and the residents question whether the wave emissions are in fact as safe as the FCC regulations say.

"The Village of Mineola Board of Trustees does not have full confidence in the scientific research considered by the United States Congress, allegedly characterizing RF emissions as harmless and not dangerous to health," said Spellman, reading a statement on behalf of the board. "Personal stories of village residents who live near transmission facilities call to question the validity of some of the research upon which Congress has awarded exclusive environmental review jurisdiction to the FCC."

The process should take about a month before the board votes on the applications.