By Alexander von Wechmar and Bob Young

Thanks to information provided by observant neighbors, we have learned that Sprint is planning to expand their cell phone footprint in our neighborhood by installing a new transmitter on a public "right-of-way" in the 5700 block of Green Oak Drive.

Just like the new T-Mobile and Cingular Wireless cell sites on Canyon Drive, the work is being done without prior notification of nearby homeowners or the office of our Councilmember Tom LaBonge and - from what we know so far - without obtaining any City permits.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile's new cell phone transmitter on Canyon Drive has become operational. A community meeting was held on October 25th in front of the cell site at 2353 Canyon Drive to allow residents to voice their numerous concerns regarding this cell site installation.

While about half a dozen representatives of T-Mobile showed up for the meeting, none of them was willing to introduce themselves or to talk to the neighbors. Instead, they left it up to a lawyer and a medical physicist, whom they had hired and flown in from out of town, to talk to the crowd of about 30 residents who attended the meeting.

Remarkably, T-Mobile did not allow discussion of any topic other than the potential health risks for nearby residents from microwave radiation. Other principal issues, such as notification of residents and neighborhood input on the location, size and appearance of cellular equipment, were not addressed at all.

One can only conclude that the T-Mobile representatives did not wish to address these primary issues because they do not want to acknowledge that these issues have any validity. To have discussed these questions would have put them in the awkward position of having to acknowledge that they have acted unilaterally and arrogantly and that they ought to have been better public citizens.

The number of residents who have signed a petition opposing the installation of T-Mobile's cell site at its current location is still on the increase. It now stands at 230.

In early September The Oaks Homeowners Association sent a list of questions to both T-Mobile and Cingular Wireless regarding their cell sites on Canyon Drive. To this day, neither company has responded.