Cell Tower Radiating Anger In Lakewood

tower_1PHOTO: Presidential Estates residents tell TLS they plan on fighting a permit given to a cell phone tower company after the company was awarded the rights to place a cell tower there without their consent.

It started about three months ago, on Rosh Hashana, when residents noticed a 175 foot tower go up just a few hundred feet from their homes. The tower – with six antennas to be added soon – are to boost the cell phone coverage in the area.

“We’re furious”, a spokesman for the neighborhood board fighting the decision, tells TLS. “They put this up with no regard for the families living here”, he said.

Although there’s no official data available confirming the dangers of the radiation emitting from the cell phone towers, residents say, “We’re not interested in our neighborhood becoming the testing ground for such data”, saying there’s a greater risk of Cancer, and higher rate of Miscarriages as a result of radiation exposure.

Meanwhile, area residents – including residents from Chestnut, Somerset Meadows, Elmwood Village, Chateau Park and more, also bothered by the tower – have met several times to discuss their plans for further action against the Township and Planning Board.

A petition from the aforementioned neighborhoods has already been signed, TLS was told.

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71 COMMENTS

  1. How can this tower be taken down? The township isn’t a communist regime. Why did they sneak this on the people? They only represent the residents. They overstepped their boundaries once again. How is this in the interest of the people? Post any details.

  2. How about the cell antenna that’s touching your head a total of 1-2hours a day? and the rest of the day that same antenna spends 8+ hours next to your body….. ever think of that?

    If you’re concerned about limiting your SAR exposure, you can take a few easy steps beyond purchasing a handset with a low SAR. You can text instead placing a voice call, use a speakerphone whenever possible, and carry your phone at least one inch from your body. Some researchers also caution against using your phone in areas with poor coverage since phones emit more radiation when searching for a signal. Children, which have smaller and thinner skulls, should limit cell phone use, and all users, children and adults, should not sleep with an active phone next to their bedside or under their pillow.

    Note that simply using a headset won’t free you from cell phone radiation. Studies have shown that radio signals tend to follow up wired headsets to the ear, and even though Bluetooth headsets emit far weaker radiation than cell phones, there’s still a small amount being transmitted.

    – so to those fighting this antenna- YOU DONT DOWN A CELLPHONE DO YOU?? BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE HYPOCRITICAL!!

  3. #4 is absolutly correct, you can not ride or walk around with a cell phone attached to your ear or on your person and then complain about a cell tower emitting some sort of radiation. You should be happy with the better reception on your phone. If it is township property there isn’t much you can do about it is there? If someone else owns the property then maybe you will get lucky…..

  4. Thats progress ! you want your cell phone,but “not in my neighborhood” for the ability to provide that service .
    Ihave complained many times the face of Lakewood is changing and not for the better,was much nicer and quieter before we had “we want to be a City ” so here you are now deal with it

  5. The radiation from this tower is thousand more times worse than a cell phone. The tower could have been put in the industrial park or npt near homes. Also, did they prove a need before putting it up?

  6. Oh great, another thing for people to complain about! Why do we always have to fight every stupid little thing?! What is this, an issue of pride? “The township went behind our backs and put the tower up” oh, you poor poor thing, the township didn’t ask your permission, it didn’t consider you important enough in MATTERS THAT ARE NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!

  7. Its gonna happen the tower is already built. they are not going to take it down because you say its a health hazard. Nothing is proven..you might as well live under the high voltage power lines, at least there you can say you have a problem. Oh wait..nope nevermind…

  8. If all the complainers would agree that they dont mind not having good cell reception then that would be one thing . Obviously the company wouldnt spend millions to put up towers if it wasnt needed

  9. By the way, isin’t there a baseballl field right there? A field where little kids go to play ball? They shouldn’t be exposed to that type of radiation. Wonder why nobody was notified. (Forget about the property owners in the area, but the kids who play ball there all summer long.) Is this why the tower went up right after the summer, so it would be too late for the parents to complain once the ball playing season started? Are the antennas up yet? Lets fight before they go up, so they wont put them up.

  10. for some reason i dont have a problem with the service on my cell phone- so if you have issues why dont you have the tower put up in your backyard. little suggestion i would invest in a life insurance policy.

  11. To all those commenters “WHATS THE BIG DEAL” please post your addresses with TLS permission so we could ask the township to move it to your backyard!!!!!!!!!!!!
    P.S. Please dont forget to update us down the line how its going…..

  12. 1. People are always complaining they do not get good cell phone coverage. Well people, without towers nearby to pick up the signals from the cell phones there would not be any cell phone usage at all. If you don’t want the towers near you then you will get poor reception.

    2. You get more radiation from your microwave oven than you will get from a cell phone tower. I don’t hear you complaining about them.

    3. I would like to have a cell phone tower in my back yard. They pay about $1200 a month to the owner of the property. Hey – I live in Lakewood so maybe I’ll get one put up. The town did away with zoning so I guess I can do it.

  13. basically there is no zoning in this town, just look arround its very obvious you can build anything anywhere. So now that its something that offends a few they have an issue with it . well there are many things besides this issue that I find offensive yet the town turns a blind eye to what is areal issue . As for radiation there is no data to support your inflated unsubstantiated concern , your phone up against you ear for prolonged periods of time is far more of an issue than this tower would be ever.

  14. YOUR WORRIED ABOUT 1 TOWER BEING CLOSE TO YOU, WHEN YOU HAVE ALL OF THE BELOW MENTIONED ITEMS AROUND YOU HOURLY FOR THE LAST 20+ YEARS???

    1. the AM/FM radio in your car.
    2. your microwave.
    3. your cellphone
    4. the cell-towers you drive past daily and dont even realize it.
    5. the alternator & electronics in your car.
    6. your cordless house phone.
    7. a remote control.
    8. store anti-theft devices by the doors.
    9. Jewelry – Certain gems are irradiated by the radioactive element Radium, X-rays, or other particles to produce a color change
    10. Smoke Detectors – Contain an Alpha and Beta ray producing radioactive isotope of the element.
    11. watches- the glowing hands(tritium)
    12. Eyeglasses or sunglasses containing uranium and thorium
    13. lamps containing thorium in the filament
    14. Some dental products containing uranium
    15. Cat-Scans & Xray’s
    16. Travel in high altitude airplanes exposes you to radiation.

    **TO THE READERS OF TLS: TVs & PC monitors emit high levels of electromagnetic waves that are in the middle of the electromagnetic spectrum. And some of this can be very damaging to your health!! – Quick, Log Off & Hide!!

  15. Anyone who is complaining about the health hazards of cell phone towers obviously didnt do research on the subject. They are just listening to people trying to scare them. If cell phone towers cause cancer, then radio waves, television signals would cause cancer too. Lets stop kol-barama. They cause cancer. What about all you people complaining? How many of you have microwaves in your house? Computers? Radios? Smoke detectors? All these things emit radiation just the same as a cell phone tower. Even the ground you walk upon emits radiation. I think most people wouldnt care if they couldnt see the cell phone tower but they complain because they feel its an eyesore. Its a necessary part of life these days. If you want cell phone service, you need towers. Lakewood is not a rural town where you could put a tower with no houses around. There will always be houses around. People dont like high tension wires but also a necessary part of electric service. Thousands of people in lakewood live within 1500 feet of high tension wires. Whispering pines, coventry square, all along kennedy blvd and county line road. I dont see anyone complaining to take those down, unless of course you want no electric service.

  16. There is no health risk from a cell tower. And a cell tower won’t rob your house. I don’t think it’s any more of an eyesore than some of the other things in this town, how about we clean those things up?? There are much worse things in this town than cell towers.

  17. to old timer why dont you list your address so we can maybe have it moved to your house actually the township is getting actually getting $2500 thats some nice money for you

  18. as much as i hate to say it mayor langert did do something good. the rental fee for the tower WILL help with the tax rates in this town. 2500x 12 =$30000 in the big picture it is small but it is a start. the tower was going to go up somewhere so why not the town get the money. also the towers are not put anywhere they are where they are needed for service.

  19. TLS Editors, not anti-semitism. Just another Jew who’s sick of seeing other Jews giving more Jews a bad name bec. they have to make a big deal out of every little thing.

  20. I work at 231 Third St. and we have all kinda radio towers including a cell tower in the back of HQ and I don’t see anyone that works there, and that spend most of their time there growing extra limbs or anything like that. You all need to calm down, this cell tower is not going to hurt anyone. FYI, I have been going in and out of the PD since I was about 1 years old because my father was an officer who spent most of his time inside because he was in the bureau and I am fine, and now I spend a lot of my time there and I’m still fine so relax!!!!!

  21. Now I understand why you think it’s OK for a Police officer to stop a Hatzolah member responding to a call if he thinks he has too many flashing lights and why you insist that all emergency personnel find a legal parking spot before they treat you for a life threatening injury……its all that radiation affecting your brain!!

    PS. You may want to check how much radiation that dual headed talon of yours that does such a wonderful job getting YOU through traffic emits.

  22. Oh well… it’s Sunday again. Here we go with the minivans driving up and down our quiet (use to be) street on their cell phones with total disregard for the speed limit and the safety of the residents and their children. At least, so far this day, no one knocked on my door to see if my home was for sale.

  23. Thats the Problem the way Hashem made Humans is that we always look at the negatives of something in life & complain about it.
    A person needs to look at the Positive of everything & learn to appreciate it & thank Hashem for it. TIP: try turning off the power to use something & see how long you can live without it. maybe then we can teach ourselves to start showing Hakaras Hatov to Hashem & thank him for everything…

  24. To all the misinformed reading half a story,
    The approvals for the tower were given a number of years ago even before the new developments were built. It went before the planning board at the time. It is virtually impossible to fight as you will eventually lose in court.
    Omnipoint, the company whose service the tower will be providing for, doesn’t build big regional towers like Verizon or AT&T but rather small towers every few miles to build their service for T-Mobile.
    The senior communities are fighting an application for a tower in their backyard. They will lose as they realize it is virtually impossible to fight. Their fight is based not on the radiation as that will get thrown out in court but rather on the fact that if the tower were to fall it may fall on 12 of the homes in their development. An argument like that just shows what you are up against here. There is nothing you can do about it.

  25. yitz- wow i never heard someone post something that could have more false info. it actually went to the planning board in 08 and it is not a small tower but actually a large one that will be hosting several antennas for dif. companys. why dont u do some research before you open your mouth.

  26. Nothing proven?! That’s a reason to put it up?? What stupidity! Let’s be guinea pigs for the world. Let’s put up possibly dangerous high frequency cell towers in our neighborhoods and watch what happens. That it is not proven doesn’t mean we should try it. For those saying cellphones are dangerous- well- you should NOT allow children to use them- nor do I allow them to. I just wish our committeemen actually cared about the residents for a change. Not publicizing a meeting for such land use is CRIMINAL! This warrents public notice to say the least!

  27. ’08 was the final approval it began before that. If you knew of it in ’08 that means they didn’t try to pull a fast one as many have claimed. Have you ever seen a Verizon tower? This is relatively much smaller.

  28. for those who are worried about radiation , i hope you don’t fly because the new body scanners are FAR more of an issue than any cell tower . hope you also have no medical problems because MRI’i & cat scans also are a much greater risk but are essential for diagnosis with modern conveiences & technology also comes some give backs as far as esthitics in the case of cell towers.

  29. Mr Conservative you are righton target!!
    Those who cry the sky is falling obviously have no clue about all the real things that are a danger to our lives ,only when its an issue that may bother them in some minor way visually

  30. This project was approved in 2008 before Langert was on the committee. If you want to blame someone, blame those who were there at the time.

  31. your complaining about a cell phone tower going up but what about the people in other neighborhoods that don’t have a say about all the yeshivas and schools that go up in their neighborhoods without any notice?

  32. Since people perceive a tower as a health hazard, the property value, or resale ability may be diminished
    Perhaps this is what really worries the homeowners.

  33. Yitz. They know it was agreed in ’08 because they did their homework and found researched everything about this tower NOW after it was up already! Had they known earlier they would have started fghting it earlier.

  34. As I read all the comments comparing cell tower to MRI or cell phone is just absurd. Any residential area within 2000 feet of a Cell tower is exposed to radiation much stronger than MRI or cell phone gives a person. Imagine doing MRI everyday that’s the same as living next to Tower. Presidential needs to fight this and hard.

  35. the theory is that the constant radiation of the cell tower is unhealthy for children. this does not compare to an MRI, microwave use, or a child using a cellphone WHICH ARE ALL OCCASIONAL.

  36. TO Anonymous says:
    November 14, 2010 at 6:52 pm
    “As I read all the comments comparing cell tower to MRI or cell phone is just absurd. Any residential area within 2000 feet of a Cell tower is exposed to radiation much stronger than MRI or cell phone gives a person. Imagine doing MRI everyday that’s the same as living next to Tower. Presidential needs to fight this and hard.”

    Please post where you got your information from , no truth what so ever to that statement !!!!!!
    how many here are aware prior to new technology of fiber optic transmition of voice that phone co’s used micro wave transmition to transmit phone voice & data for long distance Micro wave was antanas were space Approx. every twent five miles apart Point being never heard one complaint while that was the norm .
    Now we have enomus demand for cellular transmition and people are offeded by the antanas that emit very low wattage of radiation
    those who are complaing just don’t know the facts…………………..

  37. In the senior community where I live in Lakewood you are not allowed to grow vegetables near your home. You can get a small farming plot directly under the high tension / high voltage power lines that run west of the Parkway. I spent about 3 hours there today cleaning up my farm plot, occasionally looking upward to make sure the power lines weren’t swaying in a threatening way. I might would chicken out if I had a pacemaker. Frankly, if I were interested in getting into a panic, I would more likely focus on the airport a few miles north, or the fact that a portion of my village is said to be in a flood zone, or the general crime problem in Lakewood. If a cell tower is regarded as something worthy of getting “furious” about, we have less problems than I thought we had.

  38. You know you will never make everyone happy no matter what you do or what you approve, there will always be those few that worry about everything from a vehicle parked in their neighborhood for 12 hrs in the same spot to that stupid cell tower. If it makes you feel better to complain do it..if you feel your voice isnt getting heard show up to the meetings. If you think after a cell tower is built, they did it in the middle of the night..COME On NOW really!!! it takes days to build the tower..if not weeks..between putting in a concrete base and putting in all the electronics..you need something else to complain about. Dead Spots in Lakewood are getting worse

  39. they placed a caell tower across from beacon ridge without resident approval. that’s because they took advantage of the slow progress of the neighborhood but knew the potential of families eventually moving there.
    the cell companies are so powerful that eventhough it’s medical proof that it’s harmful and cause cancer and miscarriage the companies lobby congress not to reveal this information to the public.

  40. LOL this is sad…Mr. Conservative is right people dont realize how much radiation exposure we get a day i say who cares let them build it and make the cell service better in town and trust me u guys are not lab rats for some crazy testing ground to see if u get sick and what not

  41. if everyone read the LEGAL NOTICES in the local papers they would have been aware of this tower going up a long time ago. so your ignorance is no excuse and accept the fact that this a done deal.
    AWWW poor us we`re gonna get nuked by a cell tower.

  42. are you insinuating that they knowingly looked davka for a piece of land to situate their tower near upcoming homes? you are the most ridiculous of the posters here. maybe they will transmit communist thoughts into your head while you sleep too.

  43. There are dozens of cell towers in the woehr/east fourth area, built on the public housing (townhsip owned) properties. Residents living in the area did attempt to fight the installation, and lost the case. The courts will not accept the ‘health hazard’ as an argument – like it or not, there is no solid proof that they will accept. The only arguments are to the reduced resale value or the like and those arguments are inherently weak, given the increase in sale prices for these houses. (It also does not help residents’ case that these cell towers do bring revenue to the township…)

  44. to #60, near upcoming homes(very interesting)??? maybe the home owners should hold their builder`s feet to the fire for that one. seems to me that the builders lawyers should have made full disclosure to the home buyers about the possibility of a cell tower being built there if it were in the planning stages during the home construction period.

  45. you can see here that there are people that will make statement to try and support their position without any facts to back them up .I just say to those show me the facts & not your oppinons

  46. If we all come and there is a large turn out they will do something if not it will stay there and they will be putting up more of them in more residential neighborhoods shortly. Let’s get this one down just like the Seniors in Leisure did it 🙂

  47. OK for those really concerned about their health with radiation should read this news.yahoo.com/s/ytech_wguy/20100629/tc_ytech_wguy/ytech_wguy_tc2941
    now here is a real concern not a concockted one!!

  48. We have grounds to stand on it was not done with the planning board and there was no approval and the local residents were not notified of any meeting

  49. That tower was up before they tried selling the houses of “Beacon Ridge”. When they were trying to sell the houses there (when Rottenbeg still owned it), someone told me they wouldn’t buy there because of the tower. You can’t compare that to this situation. But you are right, people are scared to buy there because of the existing tower that is there.

  50. Think I’d be more worried about the garbage buried next to the Water company well in stead of RF coming off a tower 100 + feet in the air. Well pollution is a proven science, remember what happen in Jackson years ago.

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