BOMA listens to 5G opposition
Board puts into record several residents’ e-mails at meeting
Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen continues to hear from residents opposing the 5G deployments.
During the Board’s “second Thursday” meeting July 23, Town recorder Allison Myers read into record several residents’ e-mails opposing the 5G deployments throughout Town.
In one such e-mail to the Board, Theodora Scarato, executive director of Environmental Health Trust, asked for equal time at Farragut Municipal Planning Commission’s Aug. 20 meeting to contest Professor Christopher Davis’ earlier presentation to FMPC.
“In this e-mail the Environmental Health Trust asked for equal time in the Aug. 20 Planning Commission meeting and correct six major scientific errors in Professor Christopher Davis’s testimony,” Scarato stated in the e-mail forwarded by Brixworth Boulevard resident Mike Mitchell.
“Professor Christopher Davis’s testimony contained many serious errors as you can read in the e-mail below to the Planning Commission,” Mitchell stated in an e-mail. “Professor Davis is not a doctor, toxicologist or epidemiologist; he is an engineer. He has no training on how cellular radiation affects the human body.”
“Why won’t you let environmental health trust come in and speak to you?” Bill Hardin of Glen Willow Drive asked in an e-mail. “The guy (with) the cell tower company who has already spoken to y’all has been wrong in so many ways and that’s already been proven.
“You wouldn’t let something be built without only getting one bid.” Hardin added. “So why not hear from the other side?”
“I’m very grateful to The Town of Farragut for passing a resolution,” Woodland Trace resident Laura Squires stated. “However, it does no one any good if it is a piece of paper that was sent and is allowed to lay toothless and dormant in the ‘read’ stack.
“Will the Mayor (Ron Williams and Town administrator (David Smoak) immediately request an in-person meeting with (Gov.) Bill Lee to review the resolution and ask for an executive order to halt work in Farragut until additional information can be presented to the Planning Commission and BOMA regarding the overall plan for Farragut?”
“I respectfully request a full and in-depth analysis of 5G’s impact on the people of the Farragut community from a health standpoint, a property value standpoint and an aesthetics standpoint,” Caravel Lane resident Kevin Desmond stated in his e-mail.
“The Environmental Health Trust notified you, the mayor and Vice Mayor (Louise Povlin). of serious errors in Professor Christopher Davis’s 5G testimony at the July 16 (FMPC) meeting,” Weathervane Drive resident Jerry Guthrie stated. “I’m very concerned that you didn’t allow Dr. Devra Davis equal time to rebut Christopher Davis’s testimony! It is only fair that both sides of the 5G issue be heard!”
“First and foremost, my family and many residents DO NOT WANT 5G towers in our backyards, front yards or near our schools,” Woodland Trace resident Robert Gleason stated.
Following Citizen Forum, Smoak said Town staff is working on identifying a speaker for a Board meeting “that could give all of us further viewpoints on small cell development around the country.”
“I think the citizens can address their respective senators and representatives. … They can talk to them about what can be changed,” Mayor Ron Williams said. “We have been asked to stop the 5G poles from being installed in residential areas. By law, we do not have the power to do so.
“I have made that clear many, many times, and we still get Citizen Forum requests to stop them,” he added. “I want to make sure everyone is aware that we will not break the law and try to forcibly stop them.” that’s not our job to do.”
“It’s important for the public to understand, though, that the Town of Farragut and other local governments across the state of Tennessee and the United States do not have the authority to halt small cell development based on health studies,” Smoak added.
“We have been in contact with our state representatives and will continue having discussions with them on possible legislation to run in the 2021 legislative session that could allow municipalities to have local control over these issues.”
