While the Greenwich legislative delegation – also known as the Feckless Foursome – were at yet another self-promoting PR event on Friday, there was actually some good news coming out of Hartford.
A move to wrest control away from the state siting council – which has complete authority to approve cell tower locations – got an important committee endorsement at the state legislature. Click here for article
Connecticut is one of only three states with such siting councils. Citizens in Greenwich have recently protested loudly various efforts to locate these towers, especially one which would violate the deeded trust of the Greenwich Pinetum, one of the most precious and beautiful open spaces in town.
I have no idea whether this bill has any chance of passage, but it seems to me our local legislators ought to be supporting it instead of grandstanding behind yet another one of their bills that was nothing more than a publicity stunt – the proposal to keep cell towers 750 feet away from any school (who came up with that arbitrary distance?)
More and more, the Greenwich legislators have made themselves irrelevant in Hartford with their outspoken ideology. They have isolated themselves in a way that doesn’t serve any of our interests. As Hartford takes more and more of my personal income, makes my commute to Manhattan a hellish experience and treats Greenwich like the idiot cousin with a trust fund, the Feckless Foursome can only bark back with meaningless rhetoric instead of going to work in the Capital hallways to cut deals, smooth relationships and get us the best outcomes.
There was a time when fiscally conservative Republican legislators were extremely effective in Fairfield County. Today, we get only preachy, political haiku from the likes of Rep. Lile Gibbon, whose only purpose, it seems, is to get re-elected. (Dear Rep. Gibbon, please take me off your mailing list and save the first class stamp … I need to hear real solutions and not more right wing moralistic pronouncements such as your condescending “Common Sense” commandments.)
An of course, there was fumbling Fred Camillo, who had to withdraw his own domestic violence legislation because he didn’t understand the issues. Click here for article in the Greenwich Time
Can it get any worse?
Lincoln- Thanks for keeping up to date with this and keeping your readers informed. I found it very difficult to follow the details of this, in part because so many journalists hide the reference, which is http://www.cga.ct.gov/2010/TOB/S/2010SB-00206-R00-SB.htm for Senate Bill 206.
Nothing in the text of the bill refers to schools, parks, playgrounds or setback distances. And the politics of where this came from seem to have nothing to do with Greenwich, but rather Branford/Guildford and AMTrak.
Please continue to ride herd on our local legislative talent, so that we are not bamboozled by the PR releases without substance.
Comment by Michael Finkbeiner — March 10th, 2010 @ 6:54 am
The new House Bill is 5504
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2010/TOB/h/pdf/2010HB-05504-R00-HB.pdf
proposed to be installed on land that is near a school, as defined in section 10-154a, that the facility will be not less than seven hundred fifty feet from such school.
Unfortunately, when the distance to the tower increases, the kid’s cell phone jump in power from 0.6 Watts to as much as 3 watts.
http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phone-radiation-levels/?tag=lnav
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.
See http://96.56.48.67/cellphone_head.jpg for what it looks like in your kid’s head when the tower is at a greater distance.
Comment by Michael Finkbeiner — March 10th, 2010 @ 8:06 pm
DEAR LINCOLN,
IT WOULD BE A PUBLIC SERVICE IF YOU WROTE AN ARTICLE FOR THE FRONT PAGES OF ALL LOCAL NEWSPAPERS DESCRIBING THE CURRENT LEGISLATION REGARDING THE SITING COUNCIL. TWO BILLS WERE INTRODUCED THAT WOULD PROHIBIT THE CT SITING COUNCIL FROM APPROVING EGREGIOUS SITINGS AS THE ONE YOU DESCRIBED IN GREENWICH AND THOSE PLAGUING THE ENTIRE STATE.
SB 206 AND SB 5213 SHOULD BE JOINED TO CORRECT THE ACTIONS OF A COUNCIL THAT IS ACCOUNTABLE TO NO ONE AND SHOULD BE ABOLISHED. THESE BILLS OFFER MUNICIPALITIES THE RIGHT TO SITE TOWERS THEMSELVES IF THEY CHOOSE TO DO SO.
FRED CAMILLO WAS MOST EFFECTIVE IN HIS PRESENTATION AND WAS THE ONLY REPRESENTATIVE TO SUGGEST THE REMOVAL OF THE COUNCIL WHICH WAS A BOLD MOVE ON HIS PART. THE GREENWICH DELEGATION WAS ALSO THE ONLY DISTRICT GROUP TO SPEAK FOR THIS BILL OTHER THAN TRUMBULL WHO HAS THE SAD TASK OF DEFENDING THEIR TOWN AGAINST AN APPLICATION FOR A POWER PLANT!
JLEE
Comment by June Lee — March 29th, 2010 @ 2:49 pm