By TOM KANE

DAMASCUS - "It's out of their hands," said Princeton Tower representative Denise Archer to the crowd of Damascus residents who jammed into the town hall last Monday evening for a public hearing on the erection of a cell tower in the town.

The town board cannot stop the company from erecting a cell tower in the town since zoning laws allow it.

"It's a permitted conditional use," she said.

When asked why the public hearing was being held, she said, "It's a courtesy we show residents to give them a chance to understand what cell towers are all about."

Township Supervisor William Gager said there would be more public hearings on the issue.

Residents spent one hour in a public hearing, prior to the board meeting, objecting to the tower's erection.

Only one resident, a woman whose husband had been sick, supported the project. "When I wanted to reach my husband and I was away from home, I couldn't reach him," she said. "This tower would avoid that."

The proposed cell tower will be 125 feet high, held in place by a series of guide wires and will be located on Factory Road just off the Callicoon Road and Route 191 on the property of John Varcoe.

"These towers will destroy the beauty of our mountains and hills," said resident Michael Heller. Cell towers cover only three to four miles with their signals, making it necessary to build a series of them, Archer admitted.

Another resident, Richard Barrett, said the cell tower technology would be obsolete in three or four years.

"Now, using the newest technology, cell phone companies are sending their messages over satellites," he said. "This will replace cell towers and then the town will be stuck with them."

"The company would reduce a tower down to six feet if it did not have enough carriers," Archer said. After six months, it could possibly remove it. A carrier company sends out messages over the air, she said. Residents expressed concerns hat the electronic field created by the tower could possibly cause cancer.

"There is no hard evidence that such fields cause cancer," said Archer, who also stated that there is no evidence to prove that they do not cause cancer.

Archer said her company failed to get approval on a tower in Hawley, PA. The company erected the structure several miles away, she said.