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Latest Cell Tower Battleground: Cimino Elementary In Valrico

Tribune file photo by SCOTT ISKOWITZ

A cell tower at Cimino Elementary would produce $9,000 a year with one carrier, $18,000 with two carriers and $27,000 with three carriers. The school would get 80 percent of those funds.

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By D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 24, 2009

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Deborah Talley

VALRICO - Hoping to garner more community support for their cause, parents opposed to placing a cell phone tower at Cimino Elementary School and other public schools will host a meeting at 6:30 tonight at the Bloomingdale Regional Library.

Meeting organizer Louise Bravo, the parent of a Cimino Elementary student, said a groundswell of protest is the only way to stop Collier Enterprises II from placing the 100-foot cell tower at the school, at 4329 Culbreath Road, following Principal Deborah Talley's Feb. 10 decision to recommend putting up the cell tower.

"We need more help," Bravo said. "If we don't act now, the tower will go up in two months."

At tonight's meeting, she will urge opponents to attend a March 16 Hillsborough County zoning hearing at which the Hillsborough County School District is requesting that an easement on the Cimino property be vacated to permit the construction of the tower. A vacation is normally a routine request, but Bravo said the easement issue could give cell phone tower opponents a last chance to block the tower.

"I don't know if we can do anything," she said. "But I want to do whatever possible to stop it. Right now, Collier is targeting every school in the area for a cell phone tower. It's like the Wild West out there. Nobody's monitoring where these towers are going."

Bravo and fellow opponents fear the radio frequencies emitted by cell phone towers could pose a health hazard.

At a January meeting attended by about 20 parents, Talley said she would not approve the cell phone tower if anyone could show her substantive evidence that cell phone towers are a health risk.

Cimino PTA President Pearl Chiarenza said all the studies she has seen have been inconclusive, and she is in favor of constructing the tower.

Chiarenza said she believes most of the parents of the 800 children at the school want the revenue the cell tower would generate. The tower would produce $9,000 a year with one carrier, $18,000 with two carriers and $27,000 with three carriers. The school would get 80 percent of those funds.

"I'm really frustrated over the opponents' bullying and scare tactics about cancer concerns," Chiarenza said. "They are trying to deny schools an opportunity to earn money during a tough economy. We have parents who are in foreclosure and can't put food on the table. How can we expect them to donate to a PTA fundraiser?"

She said the Cimino PTA funds recess at the school as well as mini grants for teachers and art programs. The PTA is funding the construction of a living habitat so children can learn about butterflies, other insects and plant life.

At the meeting in January, parents asked Stacy Frank, president of Collier Enterprises II, to conduct a reading of radio frequency emissions at its newest tower at Miles Elementary School. The findings showed the tower gave off less than 1 percent of allowable emissions under Federal Communications Commission guidelines.

"There was virtually no difference in the reading before and after the cell tower was turned on," Frank said. "We're providing a public service by giving these schools financial help during tough times. And the opponents have not shown any evidence that will sustain a credible scientific review that cell towers pose a health hazard. All the evidence they've presented has to do with the use of cell phones."

Chiarenza added: "What the opponents fail to understand is that a cell tower can be placed on the property next to the school 300 feet away and that private property owner would reap the financial benefits, not the school."

Bravo, however, said the school board is putting financial interests over the welfare of children. She points to a paper trail showing Talley signed an agreement last fall to put a cell tower at Cimino long before she ever met with parents to discuss the issue.

Frank conceded that Collier may have asked the principal to sign a ground lease last fall. She said that simply entitles the cell phone carrier to investigate putting a cell tower on the property. She said it does not obligate the principal to put up a cell tower. Talley could have backed out of the deal, she said.

Now, with Talley recommending the tower, Frank said Collier's engineer will file the paperwork for permits this week. She said the cell tower could be constructed within two to three months.

In the meantime, with all the publicity surrounding cell phone towers, Frank said she has been inundated with requests to place cell towers on property – more than 60 requests. Among them, she said, are requests from public schools.

"I'm not going to say which ones because I don't want to cause them any trouble," she said.

Frank also recently won county approval to place a cell tower at Rotary's Camp Florida, a campground off Lakewood Drive in Brandon owned by Rotary clubs in the district. The campgrounds are geared for children who are critically ill or disabled.

So far, Collier Enterprises II has placed towers at six Hillsborough schools. The company has identified 34 schools in the Brandon area that are potential tower sites.

The Bloomingdale library is at 1906 Bloomingdale Ave.

Reporter D'Ann Lawrence White can be reached at (813) 657-4524.

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