After spending five years searching for a site, representatives from T-Mobile were met with heavy oppostion from residents and numerous concerns from the Great Neck Village Board of Trustees regarding a proposed cell-phone antenna planned for the rooftop of the Steamboat Road Tennis Center at 143-147 Steamboat Road.
“We don’t need you, please go away,” said Ephraim Aminoff, a representative of the Mashadi Jewish Center located at 130 Steamboat Road in Great Neck.
Concerns were raised at the public hearing at village hall Tuesday regarding a preschool inside the center that could be negatively affected by emissions from the cell antenna.
Aminoff said no one knows for sure what the effects of cell phone antennas have on brains of preschoolers.
“We are not prepared to gamble with our children,” said Aminoff.
Great Neck Village Mayor Ralph Krietzamn said the board was sensitive to many of the residents concerns, but some of them are out the board’s control.
“As long as the site complies with FCC standards, there cannot be denial of a site by a local municipality based on emission concerns,” said Adam Moss, an attorney for Snyder & Snyder, LLP, representing T-Mobile.
“Unfortunately, I think we are going to hear that the federal law doesn’t let us hear some of them,” said Kreitzman, who recommended that T-Mobile notify the Great Neck Park District of their intentions to build before the next scheduled meeting.
With a nearby site already approved at 825 Middle Neck Rd., residents asked why another cell site is needed close by at 143-147 Steamboat Road.
“The site at 825 Middle Neck Road is simply too far away to provide coverage into this area that is why another site is necessary at this location,” said Moss.
Aminoff named several U.S. regions that have apparently banned or severely restricted cell-phone towers phone residential and asked why Great Neck cannot do the same.
T-Mobile “comfortably” meets FCC regulations regarding emissions, according to T-Mobile Moss, under fire throughout most of the presentation.
Further discussion on the issue was set for the March 15 board meeting at village hall.
“We do think we could come back here fairly quickly and address the remaining issues,” said Moss, who did not disclose terms of the proposed lease with the Steamboat Road Tennis Center.
E-mail: rjacques@theislandnow.com
