Tag Archive
ACS
American Cancer Society
budget
cancer
CDC
cell tower
cell tower proceeds
CEO Burrell Ellis
contract
corruption
county commissioners
danger
Dr. Atkinson
fire
funding
Gene Walker
HB 1128
health concerns
lack of notice
lack of research
legislative action
margaret harris
NDHRA
non-residential
property devaluation
property values
radiation
records request
referendum
removal
Rep. Karla Drenner
RF radiation
SB 498
school board
school board policy
schools
special investigation
SPLOST
t-mobile
taxes
Thomas E. Bowen
violation
VISUAL NUISANCE
WHO
zoning
On Tuesday July 31, your vote will count! Let’s send a message to DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis and the DeKalb County School Board.
The referendum will state:
“Should the local or independent school system of DeKalb County or a charter school in DeKalb County place or operate a telecommunications tower on any elementary, middle, or high school property?”
VOTE NO!
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1. We have to win this vote. Start planning now — tell ten people a week from now until July 31. Everyone in DeKalb County can vote. Make plans to remind your contact list the Monday night before the vote! You must be registered to vote by July 2 in order to vote in the July 31 special referendum. For more information: http://web.co.dekalb.ga.us/Voter/default.html
2. Get the vote out — mark you calendar. Polls are open 7am to 7pm. Download to your calendar by clicking this button –> 
3. Get a yard sign AND add on top of it our new VOTE NO JULY 31 signage. Email us at briarcliff.heights@gmail.com with your name & address and we’ll drop a sign off.
Check out these photos to see how T-Mobile represents their proposed tower versus in life scale what 150 feet tall really looks like. The car in the picture is a full-size, quad-cab Tundra pickup truck — that stands 6’10″ off the ground.
This is what you will really get, dressed up as a "tree." Taken in Toco Hills.
A truthful representation? This is how T-Mobile would like you to picture the giant redwood tree/tower proposed for Margaret Harris.
More Photos …
Read the rest of this entry »
Several School Board Policies Violated by Lease to T-Mobile
In their complicity with private companies like T-Mobile the DeKalb County School Board has of course stepped outside their purview — but in doing so they’ve even run afoul of their own posted policies. If the School Board can put a potentially dangerous 150′ cell tower 192′ feet from the front door of a school for special needs children, what else can they do with public property without our knowledge or notice?
Read the relevant policies —>
Here is a copy of the plan for the tower that puts the tower less than 200 feet (192′ to be exact) from the door where every day children are dropped off by bus. In case you were wondering, there are published studies in the US as recently as 2010 documenting that children are more susceptible to RF radiation.
Read the rest of this entry »
Dr. Cheryl Atkinson, Dekalb Co School Board Superintendent
Dr. Atkinson thoughtfully sent each of us who spoke at last Monday’s School Board meeting a letter outlining her assertions that the School Board provided notice to the community of Briarcliff Heights. I will cut to the text that appears in most the letters:
“After much discussion and receipt of public input, the Board of Education voted to approve the placement of T-Mobile cell towers on properties owned by the DeKalb County School District. Over a period of time between 2010 and 2011, three presentations regarding cell towers were made during Budget, Finance, and Facilities Committee meetings. These meetings were announced and open to the public. Prior to the vote in July, public information sessions were advertised and held at each site slated to receive a cell tower. Citizens provided comments and information regarding cell towers during televised Board meetings in June and July. The AJC and other local newspapers provided press coverage regarding the issue. Finally, before the final vote was taken on July 11, 2011 during the monthly Board meeting, the Board of Education held an extensive discussion regarding placement of cell towers on school properties.”
In rebuttal:
Read the rest of this entry »
We just learned today that the Margaret Harris contract was signed by the School Board on December 1, 2011 and countersigned by T-Mobile on December 8, 2011.
By Superintendent Dr. Cheryl Atkinson and Board of Education Chairman Thomas E. Bowen.
Cell Tower Lease_Margaret Harris Center
Detailed plans for the site: Exhibit B Margaret Harris
Requested an electronic copy of any and all signed contract(s) between the Dekalb County School System/Dekalb County Board of Education and T-Mobile, specifically with regard to the Margaret Harris Comprehensive School.
Read the rest of this entry »
We are pleased to announce that the N. Druid Hills Residents Association sent a letter December 6, 2011 to the School Board Members and Superintendent backing their residents in the Briarcliff Heights area, imploring the Board to remove the proposed tower from Margaret Harris and open discussions about safer and less residential placement of a tower.
We couldn’t get any more answers about the contract at Monday’s School Board Meeting. Yesterday, Briarcliff Heights resident and attorney Joe Staley sent the following Open Records request to the School Board to try and get to the bottom of what is actually in the T-Mobile contract, who would sign it, and if it’s even signed yet….
Read the rest of this entry »
Coverage on the issue and our fight: Briarcliff Patch, 29 November 2011
By Emma Harger November 29, 2011: Neighbors of the Margaret Harris Comprehensive School said they were not notified of a proposed cell phone tower on school property, but now that they know about it, they are actively fighting it.
Read the rest of this entry »
