The Fairfield City Hall Council Chambers were attended Wednesday night with about thirty residents and business owners demanding regulation of cell phone towers inside city limits. Several weeks ago, in response to protests over a new cell tower being constructed at 509 W. Depot Ave, the Mayor referred the issue to the Property Committee and asked them to familiarize themselves with the issue, gather public comment and decide how to address the future placement of cell towers.
Wednesday night’s meeting was the first public hearing with the purpose of discussing how to address the future placement of cell towers; however the residents and business owners who addressed the council were focused on addressing the issues around the construction of the current cell tower.
Kathryn Seranduc, Fairfield resident and owner of Iowans For Green Technology, spoke passionately about the health hazards of cell phone towers. She provided each of the committee members with a copies of research detailing the health threats of cell towers and information on how other countries are imposing regulation to protect their citizens.
Ken Ross, CEO of Genetic ID, expressed his concern over the placement of the new cell tower which would be located a few blocks from the offices of Genetic ID. The majority of employees at Genetic ID are concerned over the health risks of spending their days working so close to a cell tower.
Several property owners who own houses in the vicinity of the cell tower explained to the committee that they will lose renters and property value due to the perceived health threat of the new cell tower location.
The Property Committee is composed of City Council members John Revolinski (Chairperson), Daryn Hamilton, and Ray Mottet. The meeting was also attended by John Morrissey, the city’s attorney.
John Morrissey spoke at length about the legal issues around preventing or restricting the siting of cell tower. He advised against confronting the issue as a health risk, but rather as an asthetic issue. He said that while the city does not have the power to ban cell towers completely, the city does have the ability to regulate cell towers based on aesthetics, height limitations and zoning.
Council Member Ray Mottet, representing the 3rd ward, drew reaction from the attending citizens when he challenged their concerns by comparing the dangers of cell phone towers to the dangers of driving a car. “How many of you drove your cars here to the meeting”, he asked the crowd.
John Revolinski closed the hearing by advising that the committee prepare recommendations for strategies on how to implement a plan for restricting the siting of future cell towers that would have the best chance at succeeding.
Fairfield City Council Members
Fairfield City Council Committee Assignments
[Local Fairfield resident Will Merydith is a husband, father, web developer and writer for Living In Small Sizes.]
To Karen Seranduc,
To the leaders of the Fairfield community who are interested in protecting and organizing themselves regarding cell tower radiation
1. Purchase the RF Analyzer sold by safelivingtechnologies.com for educating the community of the actual rf power density of exposure.
I have been offered a 25% discount on it for the Purusha group. It can be shared to the community but it must remain with the group whereever they may go. Otherwise the Fairfield community should
arrange joint sharing of it with other communities or purchase one here for Fairfiled’s exclusive use.
Have you got to use a Mastercard to put the order?