Poinciana Elementary - Help! Cell Tower Erected this Week! (Tampa: homes, neighborhood)

[Hemidancer]

I don't live near the area, but I agree with your concerns ..... I signed.

[Beckford]

Thank you so much for signing Hemidancer! My next door neighbor was on NBS news last night about the issue:

Parents upset over cell tower at elementary school - NBC-2.com WBBH News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral & Naples, Florida

There is something really creepy about this tower, like something from a Stephen King novel. It's huge (12 ft around and 75 feet tall) and silver in color. It towers over the elementary school playground where all the little kids are playing. Just creepy.

[Tripower455]

They should move it out by me, so I can get more reliable cell reception at home!

[BigBlue53]

We live in NY and recently put a deposit on a condo off Immokalee and I find it odd that a Board of Education can just go ahead and sign off on doing something like this without resident input. Have they said how much revenue the district will be receiving from the tower?

[Beckford]

Originally Posted by BigBlue53

We live in NY and recently put a deposit on a condo off Immokalee and I find it odd that a Board of Education can just go ahead and sign off on doing something like this without resident input. Have they said how much revenue the district will be receiving from the tower?

You're right, it's insane. We are told that the revenue is $1,208 per month, so $14,500 per year. (You will see in the news article $58,000 total the school board is receiving for FOUR towers on different properties.) This is peanuts in the scheme of their budget overall.

We residents, within 150-700 feet of this tower, were never notified and never had an opportunity to voice our opposition. It just simply appeared.

A permit was filed by the school board on July 24, 2013. The tower was erected on August 14, 2013.

A rep from the school board met with us on the cul-de-sac on Friday and told us that this tower was approved by a "SAC" meeting in April 2011. We asked how many people were in attendance at this meeting and he did not know. This information was NOT part of any public record that anyone could possibly be aware of.

I emailed all school board members asking for a copy of the minutes from this mysterious meeting as well as the attendance and breakdown of the vote and am awaiting a response.

The permit filed on July 24, 2013 states "replace exciting concrete pole with new communication tower." I believe that this was snuck past whoever was at the meeting in terms of a no-big-deal-maintenance type of item rather than the reality: replacing a normal concrete pole used for school-only communication with an enormous 12 ft in diameter shiny metal cell tower 75 feet tall. I strongly suspect that this was not presented accurately to whoever voted as it is impossible that parents and teachers voted for this. And residents certainly were never notified.

[old_cold]

Question for you Beckford
What is your goal at this point?
Getting it removed? Trying to improve communications for future decisions? Just expressing your displeasure?Something else?

[BigBlue53]

Reminds me of the late '90s here when our district and Dell signed a pc rental agreement. It was eventually revealed all BOE members and school admins received desktops for their homes. Maybe the BOE members all were comped smartphones. It may very well be legit but it just seems like somebody is on the take. Districts love to pass items they know will cause controversy during BOE meeting when school is not in session. What's done is done but this is why people have to stay involved.

[Beckford]

Originally Posted by old_cold

Question for you Beckford
What is your goal at this point?
Getting it removed? Trying to improve communications for future decisions? Just expressing your displeasure?Something else?

Since you ask, I have 3 goals.

1) Obviously I would like to see it removed. It was not NEEDED here, cell reception has always been great. Who knows if removal is even a possibility since it's already here now. But, yes, removal would be fantastic.

2) It seems clear at this point that there was some shadiness involved in the approval process. Obviously parents, teachers and nearby residents should be notified before something like this is erected. Seagate, Naples Park and other schools had the opportunity to prevent a cell tower on campus, why didn't Poinciana have this opportunity? I would like the approval process exposed so this doesn't happen again here in Collier to other homeowners and at other schools.

3) Many other counties (ie., Palm Beach) have banned cell towers from being permitted on school properties/in residential neighborhoods. I would like to see that happen here in Collier. There are plenty of industrial pockets here where cell towers can be located without impacting people.

My reason for posting this here was to let people know that this is going on here in Naples in case anyone is interested.

[TexBama]

My husband works for an engineering firm that designs & builds cell sites for the major companies like Verizon & T-Mobile, etc.. I showed him the picture that you posted. He said it's a "stealth tower" in that all of the antennas are concealed inside the tower, so that "stick" that you now see is all that you will ever see. There won't ever be any antennas mounted on the outside of it. He also said that since it is on school grounds it most likely passed thru zoning approval as a stealth tower "flagpole", and may possibly be painted white. Will it look better, more acceptable to you if it is painted white & has a big American flag flying from the top?

He said to assure you that it would be a monumental task to have it removed. Once the big phone companies have a signed lease, zoning approval & building permits from the governing jurisdiction there's little you could do to stop it. Their legal dept would sue the pants off of the school district, city, county, etc, etc.. The one thing you could push for (in case it's not already planned) would be to have them paint it white & use it as a flagpole.

Also, he said any health concerns about radiation for anyone nearby AT GROUND LEVEL are a non-issue, and that is definitely one thing you shouldn't concern yourself with.

hope this helps.
good luck!

[Janitor Joe]

Paint it fleshtone as it looks like you people got it good from your school officials.