Another cell tower is being proposed for Whitman High School in Bethesda. Where does the income from those towers go? As of a few years ago there was an estimated $900,000 in cell phone tower income coming into MCPS. How much cell phone tower income is coming into MCPS today?
Does the cell phone tower income go into the MCPS Operating Budget? Does it go before the County Council for appropriation? No, to both of those questions.
If the MCPS Operating Budget is REALLY tight, then shouldn't this income be used to fund teacher salaries instead of slush funds for local principals? Whitman's student newspaper reports on the proposal to put yet another cell phone tower on public school school property.
...T-Mobile would pay a $2,000 rental fee per month, which would be split evenly among Whitman, the elementary school cluster and MCPS. Similar financial arrangements exist with cell service companies at other area schools, including Sherwood, Blake, Springbrook and Blair...
Northwood also has a cell phone tower .....
ReplyDelete2000 dollars is a lot of money, but journalistic accuracy has a lot more worth. First, the T-Mobile prsentation was not held during the PTSA meeting, it was held after the meeting had ended. The T-Mobile presentation was held for the benefit of the local and school community. second, not shouting occurred, except that some people were seriously concerned about the issues and upset that their questions were not being answered. Third, the issue being ignored by T-Mobile representatives was that the science surrounding adeverse health effects of radio frequency emissions of vrllulst yoertd has yet to be resolved because it takes about 30-40 years for those studies to be completed. In addition, the community articulated two alarming facts (disputed by the T-Mobile representatives) 1. that the World Health Organization (WHO) maintains that "there are gaps in knowledge still needing to be filled before better health risk assessments an be mad on the possible health effects of exposure to many part of the frequency spectrum. http://www.who.int/peh-emf/research/en,and 2. the FCC maintains "the possibility of "non-thermal' biological effects may exist, whether or not such effects might indicate a human health hazard is not presently known. Further research is needed to determine the generality of such effects and their possible relevence, if any, to human health. "http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Engineering_technology/Documents/bulletins/oet56e4.pdf.
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