There were two things clear about the East Lansing City Council meeting Tuesday night - it was going to be long and the parents of students at St. Thomas Aquinas School were not going to get a solution just yet.

District 54-B Courtroom 2 was packed to standing room only to discuss the future of a cellular phone tower on top of the Alton Street water tower in Patriarche Park, 420 feet away from St. Thomas Aquinas School, 915 Alton St.

Nearly a dozen parents and area neighbors voiced their opinions on the cell tower and their desire for it to be removed.

The parents expressed concern of a potential health hazard for their children because there hasn’t been a study of long-term effects of exposure to the low-frequency waves the tower emits. St. Thomas Aquinas students can possibly be in the school building for 12 consecutive years as the school offers 2-year-old preschool through eighth grade classes.

Ken Lucas, the parent of two students, a 10-year-old and a 13-year-old, spoke of his children’s hobbies and how much they, and their futures, mean to him before directly questioning the council’s actions.

“I ask you tonight, please don’t make an experiment of my children,” he said. “I would hate to find out in 10 to 12 years from now that this was a serious error in judgment.”

The Nextel cellular phone tower was approved by the city council with a lease agreement on Aug. 17, 2000, and signed on Nov. 10, 2000. The tower construction began Nov. 20, 2000, and became operational shortly after, East Lansing City Attorney Dennis McGinty said.

At that time the city council had no information on possible health hazards and did not hear any until March 2001 when the students’ parents sent them a letter. From there an extensive investigation began.

Tuesday night, the information that had been gathered on radio frequency emissions at and around the tower gathered by Trott Communications Group, Inc., a national engineering firm hired by Nextel Communications, was discussed by David Hamby, an independent nationally known expert on health hazards and issues.

Hamby said while the rays are present, they are at very low levels - at some places more than 800 times lower than the national standard.

“There are harmful and unharmful frequencies,” he said. “There is a feeling in the community that we need to be cautious of frequencies we know nothing about. I would agree if we knew nothing about the waves, but these waves are everywhere.

“We can remove a tower but it’s not going to keep you from being exposed to waves.”

But Councilmember Bill Sharp, who has been a long-time critic of the tower, said he would not be swayed.

“If there is any question of any harm being done to any member of this community, it needs to be taken down,” he said. “Even if we have to get up there and take out the old pliers, we have to do it.”