Tonight’s East Lansing City Council meeting will mark the first meeting of Councilmember Vic Loomis and Councilmember Bill Sharp’s new term.
It will also feature a full agenda, because it is the first council meeting in nearly a month.
Among the issues to be discussed or acted upon during the 7:30 p.m. meeting in Council Chambers, 101 Linden St., are the concerns over the cellular phone tower on the Alton Street water tower in Patriarche Park and the launching of the city’s new Web site.
David Hamby, an independent nationally known expert on health hazards and issues, will analyze the data collected by Trott Communications Group, Inc. and address concerned parents of children at St. Thomas Aquinas School, 915 Alton St., about possible dangers the tower could represent for the children.
Hamby, who holds a doctorate in health physics, is an associate professor in radiation health physics at Oregon State University.
Whatever the report may say on the tower’s safety, Andrea Larkin, a St. Thomas Aquinas parent and East Lansing resident, said she and the other parents will continue to fight.
“There is a lot of credible research out there, especially coming out of (Western Europe), that the cell phone people would like to ignore,” she said. “It says there could be damaging effects to long-term exposure. Our children are captive in that building five days a week.”
But City Manager Ted Staton said not only does the report show no adverse health ramifications resulting from the tower, but Federal Communications Commission law does not allow the city to decide tower locations based on health concerns - because Congress has said no such concerns exist.
“We’ve got no basis to remove it,” Staton said. “We understand the parents’ concern, that’s why we’ve gone to these lengths, but what this new data shows is none of these measurements are ever more than 3 percent of the minimum federal standard.
“There are more of these radio waves emitted from a baby monitor than from these towers.”
The meeting with Hamby will begin around 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers.
Then, after several months of work, Kelcey Anderson, the community events specialist for the city, and Phil Speth, senior information systems specialist, will talk about the city’s new Web site.
“We haven’t really promoted the new Web site yet because we’re still cranking away at getting it launched,” Anderson said.
Judith Taran, communications director for the city, has been involved in the Web site program since its inception.
“This is one of those projects that has been strung out and stalemated several times,” she said. “We knew it was a big task, but in reality it was a gargantuan task.”
