After two years of acrimonious dispute, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile agreed to disconnect and remove their cell phone antenna towers from the roof of St. Mel’s parochial school in Flushing.
Trying to raise money for the school and the church, St. Mel’s administration signed a contract to lease roof space in 2000. In 2006 however, parishioners and parents of children attending the school voiced their concerns that the radiation from the cellular radio waves could be harmful.
Just a few days after Christmas last year, the two wireless companies turned off the antennas. Sprint removed its equipment shortly after and T-mobile will demount next week.
“We look forward to working with the community and City Councilmember [Tony] Avella to identify a suitable venue to relocate our equipment,” said T-mobile representative, Wayne Leuck.
As they were waiting in the cold outside the school doors for their children on Thursday, parents seemed to agree on one point: they were happy the issue was finally resolved and they could all breathe a sigh of relief.
Asked if they believed the antenna endangered their children’s health, most parents said that they did not know, but they would rather not take chances. Mary Lobosco, a mother of three St. Mel’s pupils, said she believed her children were safer with the antennas gone and she had one less thing to worry about. The pastor of St. Mel’s, Christopher Turczany, said that he was glad the issue was over. “We’ve struggled to get the antennas removed, and they are finally removed.”
Editor’s Note: In early 2006, when the parents of students at St. Mel’s first raised safety issues about the antenna on the school roof, The Queens Courier had the cell phone antennas tested by an independent industry analyst. We were there, on the roof when the testing equipment registered virtually no radiation or harmful waves emanating from the towers.
