Multiple residents spoke at the Roslyn Harbor Board of Trustees meeting Thursday night to express their concerns over a new AT&T cell tower to be erected in the village and their discontent with the lack of communication from the Village about the proposed tower.

During the Village’s March Board of Trustees meeting, the board approved a special use permit to AT&T to remove the existing microwave relay tower and replace it with a new cellular tower. Preceding the decision were three public hearings to discuss the matters.

“This is just swapping out a leg for a leg,” Deputy Mayor Joshua Kopelowitz said.

Multiple residents expressed their frustration with the Village that they had not been notified about the new cell tower prior to its approval in March.

Village attorney Kevin Walsh said public hearing notices were published and residences within 200 feet of the tower received notice required under the Village’s code.

“We’ve done all the notifications we are required to do by law,” Kopelowitz said to a resident. “The fact that you may not have seen it or may have not been noticed yourself personally is not the fault of the board. We can only do what we’re allowed to do.”

Residents also expressed concerns over the health and safety of living within close proximity to the cell tower. Concerns expressed included exposure to radiation and the risk of cancer.

Cellular towers emit RF waves, a form of non-ionizing radiation. This form of radiation does not directly damage the DNA inside cells, according to the American Cancer Society. The organization stated that ionizing types of radiation, which are stronger, do damage the DNA inside cells which is believed to cause cancer. These are not emitted from cell towers.

The American Cancer Society said that there is “no strong evidence that exposure to RF waves from cell phone towers causes any noticeable health effects.” Despite this, the society also said exposure to RF waves is not deemed entirely safe and more research needs to be conducted about long-term exposure.

A Change.org petition has been started to stop the implementation of the new cell tower. It has garnered 56 signatures since it started July 18.

“This is bigger than just a larger tower going down being replaced by a smaller tower, it’s also going to fulfill a critical need,” Mayor Sandy Quentzel said.

The land where the cell tower is located is owned by AT&T. One resident suggested the Village buy the land back to prevent the new cell tower from being erected, but trustees said that is not possible if the land owners are not willing to sell it.

Under the federal 1986 Telecommunications Act, Walsh said cell towers are granted special treatment in applications. This act prevents local municipalities from deciding on the implementation of cell towers beyond aesthetics.

Walsh said the Federal Communications Commission has a standardized emission standard to determine the health safety of cell towers.

“So despite the fact that people attempt to bring in data in local board meetings about the health or lack of health associated with a new tower, federal government said ‘you study it against the FCC regulation with respect to remissible emissions’ and if it fits within that, the inquiry ends at that point in time,” Walsh said.

AT&T provided the emissions test to the Village of Roslyn Harbor, which came out to 0.09%, which Walsh said is well below the standard. This was conducted by AT&T’s third-party assessor, according to Walsh.

“If it turns out they’re wrong, I’ll stand next to you and we’ll all go down to D.C. and we’ll testify,” Kopelowitz said to a concerned resident. “They’re swapping a leg for a leg, it’s less than the FCC requirements, it’s their land – we’ve got no leverage. The law says we have to say yes. We did the best we could.”

While the cell tower has been deemed safe based on the report from AT&T and the FCC’s guidelines, Walsh said that neither he nor any board member is advocating that it is safe.

“But we are duty-bound to honor the federal law in this,” Walsh said.

He said there is not any action the board could take against the cell tower, as the federal government has established that if a cell tower application is denied or purposefully slowed down, then they will take the municipality to court. He said in these scenarios, the case for the municipality to win is slim.

Quentzel said the Village is not benefiting in any way from the cell tower.

The current tower will be taken down and the Roslyn Water District will be using it for a well, the mayor said.

Quentzel said that while the permit has been approved, it has not been issued yet. She said that she is not aware of a timeline for the construction of the new cell tower yet, which has not begun.

During the meeting, the board also approved various resolutions. This included extending building permits for new homes from 15 months to 18 months and changing the temporary certificate of occupancy fees to include the fees for a permit extension on top of the original $500 fee.

The Village also heard a presentation from TextMyGov, a service that provides direct text communication between municipalities and its residents. The program allows for residents to text a number associated with the Village to report issues and find information, as well as receive alerts from the Village.

The Board of Trustees also established that a public hearing for a moratorium on road openings is to be held at its next meeting. The public hearing would be to change the opening rules and regulations of new roads.

The Roslyn Harbor Board of Trustees is scheduled to hold its next meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 28. The Village’s calendar does not have a meeting scheduled during the month of August.