Roslyn Estates residents continued to express their concerns to village officials on Monday with a proposal by Steel-Los Dos LLC, AT&T licensee, to replace 24 existing antennas atop 1044 Northern Blvd.
Steel-Los Dos, LLC presented its proposal to the board on Sept. 10, prompting its ongoing review and a 60-day approval process. A company representative was not present at the meeting.
This left the board members and residents to debate the proposal on their own, without the ability to ask questions or receive clarification on the project.
Residents were eager to express concerns.
One resident requested that another independent expert do an ambient measure of the radiation in the neighborhood to determine whether or not it conforms to the code. He expressed skepticism of the expert hired by AT&T to perform the initial report.
“You can’t trust these experts,” he said. “They’re not paid to be objective. They’re paid to get this done.”
Another resident who said she lives very close to 1044 Northern Blvd. presented the board with documents she believed demonstrated a building code violation. She said the documents showed that the original application for 24 antennae was not approved in the first place. She also presented documents suggesting that the tower that was built was bigger than the original proposal.
“That alone, I think, is subject to some inspection,” she said. “I think before we even approve for [the applicant] to do any sort of swapping, upgrading, anything of that sort, we need to find out exactly what equipment is up there. Because that’s a clear violation of what we have permitted to them.”
A third resident said that, by using a drone, she could look at the roof of 1044 Northern Blvd. and found there are currently 31 antennae.
She proposed forming an oversight committee so residents and the board could collaborate to discuss and review the application further.
The board voted to host a special meeting on Thursday, Nov. 7, at 7:30 p.m. to allow the board to review the documents submitted by residents and potentially conduct another building report to confirm whether or not the current antennae and towers follow regulations.
Village attorney Chris Prior said the board could decide on the application at the Nov. 7 meeting.
