Cell tower location opposed

By TOM KANE

DAMASCUS, PA - A small number of residents of Atco responded forcefully against the approval of the Damascus Township Supervisors Board to grant permission for a cell tower on property owned by Walter and Marilyn Barbe near Plank and Atco roads, a few miles from Narrowsburg, NY.

Two opponents walked out in protest after the approval vote on June 15.

A conditional-use hearing was held earlier on June 9 to which residents who live within 500 feet of the proposed tower site were invited. It was at this meeting that neighbors expressed their opposition to the tower’s location.

At the June 15 meeting, attorney Catherine Durso, who represents the cell tower company, South Canaan Communications, doing business as Cellular One of Northeast Pennsylvania, agreed that the original site on the Barbe property be moved 230 feet to a line of trees where the tower would not be in clear view.

“We need cell towers,” said Ken Love, who lives on Atco Road within 500 feet of the proposed tower site. “We’re all against the site where the tower will be placed.”

Love claimed he could acquire 30 signatures of residents who oppose the tower location. “Everyone around there is against it,” he said.

Love is mainly concerned with radiation that, he says, can affect those who live near the tower. He wants the tower to be located in a more isolated site where there were few or no homes.

“They minimize the danger of radiation but I don’t believe them,” he said.

Cathy Casella, a resident who lives near the site, also objected to the location of the tower but for other reasons.

“This tower could easily be hidden from view and it would not cause any disturbance,” she said. Her objection was that the location of the tower would lessen the property value of the nearby homes and make them harder to sell.

Damascus supervisor chair Jeff Dexter, who has been working for the last two years on attracting a tower company to build in the area, remarked, “I am the supervisor of all the people. We need a tower here for health and safety reasons. People who have car trouble can’t call anyone to help. People are constantly telling me the reasons why cell service is a must. A few years ago, we had an incident of a school bus that was in an accident, and the parents didn’t know where the bus was. The objections voiced here are another example of not-in-my-backyard.”

It was not clear just when the construction of the tower will begin.

“There is a lot more to do before we can begin construction,” Durso said.