Parents Won! Atlanta Parents Fight to Keep Cell Towers Off Public School Playgrounds is Over!

Get the Cell Out - ATL: It's Over!: Get the Cell Out - ATL was started in May 2011  by just a few  concerned parents simply walking  their own neighborhood,  talking w...

"We said no...and we are saying no again." .@mcpssuper #celltower #JuliusWestMiddleSchool #Rockville #getthecelloutJWMS

This is the cell tower compound that is on the
MCPS Daly Elementary School playground in
Germantown, MD.

I am a resident that fought the T-Mobil cell tower at Julius West Middle School in 2006.  My neighbor and a group of us have gone around the neighborhood and acquired over 300 names on a  petition, signed against the tower coming up in 2006. We STILL reside in Rose Hill Falls and Rose Hill, Monument and others.

In 2006 the tower height was 75 feet, and extremely close to the school. This tower was supposed to go to Wootton High School and was rejected . The location is exactly where the Verizon tower is now planned to come up.  All the documents regarding the T-Mobil proposal are in the archives and I have given the memory chip with everything that I have to Ms. Janis Sartucci. 

Dr. Weast was against the tower back then, what has changed??. Mr. Starr is now in charge! Travelling back and forth from the Citizen’s Forum I have kept updated the West End as well as the Mayor and Council. 3 Mayors were against it as well at that time. T-Mobil needed a special exception due to the height of the tower, which they did not get. I went on local TV,  Gazette was involved ; we joined forces with the West End, and to our surprise we were not invited to any of the PTSA meetings, when the tower was discussed; interesting.

Now we come, yet again to another tower application. What is the difference between then and now? We are still the homeowners residing in the same location.

Parents,teachers and kids come and go. Our property value will go down, our stress will go up and this is not really a way to live.

We said no previously and we are saying no again.  Having said that here is the difference between the 2006 T-Mobil tower and the 2014 Verizon tower proposal.

The Verizon tower is no longer for just getting a cell phone signal as everybody seems to think. It is for DATA transmission. We have the Internet, Twitter ,Facebook to go viral on this. Looking at what is out there, there are many communities that have objected to the tower in public schools and surprisingly enough there is a site of firefighters that got together and refused to have the cell tower installed next to their station. 

Who signs the document for the approval to go ahead for the tower? Is  it the School Superintendent? Is it somebody that no one knows that just signs the document and here we go? Where does the City of Rockville Government stand in regards to this particular tower and others?

Cell Tower technology is almost obsolete, there is already new technology that has come up and is being installed in the highway’s corridor. What will happen when this old tower, rusted and all will remain? What will happen to our neighborhood? 

Did you know that you need diesel to run the tower? That means maintenance and strangers coming and going from the school. I leave  it to your imagination, and I will stop here.

Nadia A.