RESIDENTS CONCERNED ABOUT RADIATION
By Erik Larsen • COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU • March 20, 2008

OCEAN TOWNSHIP — Some residents have raised health and safety questions over a new cell phone tower erected off Whalepond Road in Joe Palaia Park.

Cheryl Miller of Branch Road said she worries that there are hidden radiation dangers emanating from the tower, which Township Manager Andrew G. Brannen said has not been made operational yet.

"There are pros and cons to microwave ovens, but we have them in our house," said Mayor William F. Larkin. "There are still people who still swear that microwave ovens make you grow a third ear."

"I'm not convinced. I think a lot of the technology we've yet to see," Miller said, addressing the Township Council at a recent meeting. "I think generations from now, it will come out. Just like cigarettes came out with warning labels, just like Agent Orange (a toxic herbicide used during the Vietnam War) . . . ."

Larkin suggested that Miller ought to be more concerned about the radiation that comes from her cell phone as opposed to a cell tower.

"The biggest concern is what you hold up to your ear about eight hours a day, and I'm a big violator of that," Larkin said.

Lesley Dorsett of Lockwood Place, who has attended muni-cipal meetings on a regular basis for the past five years, said she was troubled that she could not recall when the application for the tower was before either the council or the Planning Board.

"There is no one in the environmental world who knew anything about it," Dorsett said.

Brannen, who has been with the township since August, said he believed the application had been approved "a long time ago. It may have been three years ago; it might have been longer." Construction began in the fall.

"They're very popular items," Larkin said. "It's like an annuity — it keeps on giving."

Neither Brannen nor Larkin knew how much revenue was to be generated from its contract with T-Mobile, the service provider. However, Larkin said it was not unreasonable to assume the township could receive an annual amount of at least $50,000.

Deputy Mayor J. David Hiers said the revenue — whatever the amount — was to be used exclusively for parks and recreation because Joe Palaia Park was established with state Green Acres funding. Therefore, the money could not be used directly for property tax relief.

The cell tower has been designed with a lattice frame to resemble the rusted relics of antiquated radio towers that dot the landscape around the 208-acre park once known as Deal Test Site.

Between World War I and the 1970s, the test site was used for communications technology experimentation by Western Electric, Bell Labs, and the U.S. Signal Corp. The site was the first American installation to record signals from Soviet Sputniks 1 and 2 in the 1950s, which triggered the space race.

Ocean Township acquired the site in 1973 for almost $2 million, with half of the money coming from Green Acres. In 1997, the park was named after then-state Sen. Joseph A. Palaia, R-Monmouth, who retired from public office earlier this year.

Erik Larsen:               (732) 643-4029      

or elarsen@app.com