Location for new cell tower criticized

POTSDAM — Like most other things at this Mennonite family farm, the issue of a proposed cell phone tower is treated pretty simply.

The way the Martins see it, there's just got to be a better site than the one looming over their fields.

"We're not expecting to stop it, but we're hoping for better siting. There are a lot of better spots in immediate areas that wouldn't be near as visible," Daniel Z. Martin said. "There are miles of empty woodland with good elevation out there."

Verizon Wireless has proposed erecting a 200-foot-tall communication tower just off Route 11B, not far from the Martins' farm and roadside stand. It would be the third cell phone tower in the town of Stockholm.

"A lot of people don't like cell phone towers next to their house, and I don't blame them. They're not particularly attractive," said G. Roy Horst, chairman of the Stockholm Town Planning Board. "It doesn't mean a company can't build one if they meet all the requirements."

Verizon needs a special use permit and an area variance to build its tower. The Planning Board will hold a public hearing on the issue at 7 p.m. July 17 at Stockholm Town Hall.

At their vegetable and berry-picking stand, the Martins have begun to compile a list of the health and environmental dangers sometimes said to be associated with the radio waves emanating from cell phone towers. They also have begun to collect signatures on a petition to protest the structure.

"It seems to us like Verizon ought to be the one who proves to us that there is no health hazard, rather than us proving to them that there is," said Luke M. Martin, whose four sons, including Daniel, all live near the tower site.

He said he's worried about cancer risks from the tower's radio waves for Daniel and Timothy Z., who live closest to the tower location. Timothy estimates his house is 800 feet from the site.

Thomas H. Ortmeyer, chairman of Clarkson University's electrical and computer engineering department, pointed to a report compiled by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, which found that exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields, like those associated with cell phone towers, is not harmful to human health at or below the recommended levels.

"The Federal Communications Commission has certified these cell phone towers. There are over 100,000 of these functioning, and there's not a little desert around the bottom of each one of those," Mr. Horst said. "I mean, I wouldn't want to sit right at the top next to the antenna 24 hours a day, but nobody's doing that, now, are they?"

The elder Mr. Martin also is concerned about the connection between cell phone waves and colony collapse disorder, which could affect his honeybees.

In a limited study released last year, researchers at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany, found that bees refused to return to their hives when mobile phones were placed nearby. They theorized that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' communications systems.

"To get into the public health and safety issue is totally outside our jurisdiction, and we've been arguing that all along," Mr. Horst said.

Daniel Martin just can't see why Verizon couldn't choose a site farther away from his family's homes and property. He thinks it's because the parcel it has proposed building on already has electrical connections, unlike the backwoods spots he'd prefer.

"It would seem that a corporation that size spending another 10, 20 thousand dollars to move electric lines would be like you and me spending a few quarters," Mr. Martin said.

For his part, family friend Ken C. Zimmer can't imagine looking up from the bucolic crops of the Martin homestead to see a cell phone tower.

"Look how beautiful and rustic this farm is. Now imagine a huge, mammoth hunk of steel four times higher than the tree line," he said. "It'd be like a monster out there, overshadowing everything.