WPCNR WHITE PLAINS WIRED. By John F. Bailey March 8, 2008: A meeting called by owners of condominiums at 30 Lake Street enlisting the aid of other Condominium building Presidents in the city, has raised indignant opposition to a contract where Verizon would install 18 cell phone antennas on the roof of 30 Lake Street. The residents of 30 Lake Street and the representatives of two other condominium apartments in the area were seeking a public forum to vent the safety issues of cellphone antenna concentration in the downtown and in close proximity to Eastview School, the middle school.
No "Cell-Out" Just Yet. Residents of 30 Lake Street and two Condominium Presidents of neighboring buildings discuss the 18-cell antennas proposed for the Lake Street building. (Adjacent to Clayton Park, in the immediate vicinity of Eastview School.
At the meeting Saturday morning, two condominium Presidents chided the 30 Lake Street Condominium Board for not presenting both sides of the cellphone radiation health effects to the Lake Street residents. The two Presidents also resented that the Lake Street building had not informed them of the plan to increase (by 18 antennas) the amount of cell transmissions beaming across the city at their buildings. It was made clear at the meeting that federal communications law did not allow towns and cities to deny cell antenna locations for health reasons.
At the meeting, Drago asked the Lake Street board if they would put the matter of whether to go ahead with the installation to a vote of the entire ownership. A member of the board said the board would not comment until they spoke to the Board’s lawyers. At this point the matter of a condominium owner wide referendum on the cell phone arrangement appeared moot.
The President of the Board said they had used a city consultant to evaluate whether the antennas were safe, and they had been assured it was. He said the board had referred residents to websites for further information. This did not go over well with two condominium presidents of other buildings in the city. One termed this information gather “absolutely ludicrous.”
Robert Marshall, a resident of 30 Lake Street, speaking with WPCNR noted that his concern was with risk assessment to future condo value, possible future health risks that might be discovered. He said that the matter was in the process of applying for a permit to build the antennas.
Steve Drago, a 30 Lake Street resident, who has lead the opposition to the plan where the Lake Street building would receive $40,000 a year for 25 years in return for the antenna installation, called the meeting, and invited Councilman Glen Hockley to observe. Drago noted that though the 25 year deal was irrevokable and the contract signed by the Board, he felt that if enough community opposition surfaced, Verizon may back off the deal.
Bill Palmer, President of the 30 Lake Street Condominium Board denied his board had not conducted appropriate due diligence, noting that the deal had been planned for a decade, and only now that the organization had gone ahead with the project, had opposition surfaced.
Coucilman Hockley will lobby for a forum if Mayor does not.`
Councilman Glen Hockley addressing the meeting said that if the Mayor of the city, Joseph Delfino was not inclined to pursue a public forum on the perceived threat to health of the cell antennas, he would attempt to join with another member of the Common Council to place such a hearing on the council agenda. Hockley said he would only intervene if the Mayor was not inclined to pursue the matter. Hockley said there was conflicting information on the safety or non-safety of cell antennas from what he had discovered.
