GUILDERLAND — Despite concerns raised by area residents, the zoning board approved a special-use permit for Verizon to install a cellular telephone antenna on the Fort Hunter water tower.

The board’s chairman, Peter Barber, told The Enterprise last month the board was following all federal and state guidelines in making its decision.

Concerned residents and parents complained that they did not want the cell towers, which are located directly behind the Fort Hunter Fire Department on Carman Road, close to the Pine Bush Elementary School.
Barber said there was "concern with the cumulative effects of radio frequency."

Federal and state agencies, including the Federal Communication Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, and the New York State Department of Health, say there is no scientific evidence showing radio frequency from cell towers to be harmful to humans.

Volmer Associates, brought in by the town to conduct assessments, found Verizon to be in full compliance with its cell-phone tower application.

Last week, The Enterprise ran an article outlining the possible dangers of excessive cell phone use, and both Daniel Driscoll, an electrical engineer, and Louis Slesin, publisher of Microwave News website, said that the towers are not the concern, but that the actual cell phone is.

Towers produce very low levels of electromagnetic radiation and they are high in the air and far away from human contact, unlike the cell-phone, which is usually held against the user’s head.

At low levels, microwaves cannot heat tissue as it would in a microwave. However, the long-term effects of low-level electromagnetic radiation debate still continues.

There are already several cell-phone antennas on the Fort Hunter water tower, but it will be Verizon’s first in the area, according to Barber. Guilderland’s Water and Wastewater Management Department currently receives rent from cell phone providers using the water tower to place antennas.

The rent money is factored into the departments annual town budget.

The antennas currently on the Fort Hunter water tower are rectangular in shape and are fairly small — standing between two and four feet high.

Other business

In other business, the zoning board unanimously:

— Approved a special-use permit for Deborah Beatty at 804 Rainbow Drvie;

— Approved a special-use permit and an area variance for Jennifer McClaine on 2093 Western Ave.;

— Amended a special-use permit for Lou Lansing on 1753 A Western Ave.; and

— Approved a Days Inn sign for Ray Sign at 1230 Western Ave.