Dear Citizens;
     I decided a special edition of CAREFREE MATTERS was needed since last night’s special council meeting was held too early for many to attend.  I am including a report of the New Path cell tower presentation by one of our Carefree citizens, Gary Zalimeni.  
     Council approved (4-3, Miller, Gemmill & Vanick voting against) to continue keeping the recycling events at the same location they have been at for the past nine years.  Vice Mayor Miller, supported by Council members Vanick and Gemmill wanted it moved to the parking lot of the Sun Dial Plaza building.
     Coady Comment: While I am sure Vice Mayor Miller must have had the best of intentions, unfortunately his suggestion were ill conceived.  Not only would moving the event cause confusion for many, but the Sun Dial parking lot is not paved.  With the number of vehicles at our events, this would have caused a great deal of dust as well as other air born particulates and would have resulted in problems for nearby residences as well as businesses.  
     Council discussed the Town procedure for bidding as it pertained to the Sun Dial Circle building.  Council was satisfied with the explanations presented by Gary Neiss.  
     Coady Comment: Unfortunately, after this discussion I had even more concerns regarding this particular bidding procedure as the initial bid did not conform to State requirements and should have been rebid to all.  I requested a full investigation so that we could have better oversight in the future.  My request was denied by the mayor.

 

Cave Creek Water Company Users FYI: this past Monday evening, there was an apparent pressure surge with Cave Creek Water.  This resulted in some homes having problems with water softeners cracking or leaking.  If you are one of these homes, you may wish to consider installing a water pressure regulator on your water main.  This would be at your own expense.

 

                                       Special Meeting of the Town Council  Sept. 15, 2009

                                                    NewPath Networks Development Proposal

The Council Chamber was filled to capacity with concerned citizens, reporters and Newpath corporate representatives, there was standing room only.  The meeting started promptly at 3:00PM with the town Council discussing several matters prior to the presentation by Newpath Networks. 

 

Newpath was there in force.  Present, were several technical engineers, including the director of program management Mark W. Kelso and NewPath owner and CEO, Mike Kavanagh.  Newpath also brought in Dr. Gerald Bushberg, with a degree in Bionucleonics, to testify about health issues.  Included in Newpath's entourage, was Chris Percy, who is AT&T's Vice President and General Manager for Arizona and New Mexico.   Their Attorney, Lynne Legarde, started Newpath's presentation.   

 

Ms. Legarde explained that Newpath builds the infrastructure (hardware) and then leases their towers to common carriers such as Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T and many others.  At present, AT&T is the only carrier that has committed to the project with Newpath.  Legarde said Newpath expects to have as many as
six carriers on each cell tower in Carefree.  She stated that AT&T is spending 11 Billion dollars on the poject that includes voice and data transmission.  The  system they are proposing is a DAS (Distributed Antenna System) which is interconnected by fiber optic cables. and routed to a central location.  Ms. Legarde then stated "our goal is to be a good neighbor," however, in the very next sentence she quoted  from the Federal Communications Act of 1996 and stated, "Communities cannot prohibit the installation of cell towers."
Ms. Legarde then called on Newpath's CEO, Mike Kavanagh to speak.

 

Mr. Kavanagh said of Newpath, " we do things up-front" and that Newpath was a "privately owned Corporation, located in Seattle, Washington."  Councilman Koteas then asked how long Newpath had been in business, Kavanagh said, "six years."  He said that they will be "very creative," when installing their system.  Ms. Legarde then called AT&T Vice President Chris Percy to the podium.

 

Mr. Percy stated that the project was to strengthen their infratstructure.  He went on to say that "AT&T received 22 letters from Carefree residents who wanted the cell towers erected."  Upon making that statement, Councilman Gemmil asked him his next question: " How many letters did AT&T received from Carefree residents who did not want the cell towers," he said, there was no response from Percy.  Mr. Percy, along with most of the speakers for Newpath, spoke in technical ways that seemed to be above the heads of most of the attendees at the meeting.  Steve Garcia, a technician with the company then came to the podium.

 

Mr. Garcia said that the nodes (cell towers), as they call them, will be faux (fake) cactus with faux rocks covering the hardware on the ground.  The fiber cables will be laid in, or by, the roadways in Carefree. 
Mr. Garcia gave a slide presentation of the proposed installation.  Dr. Gerald Bushburg then came to the podium.

 

Dr. Bushburg spoke about RF radiation standards.  His objective, as most saw it, was to try to convince those in attendance and Council, that there were no adverse health effects from cell tower emissions.

 

Mayor Schwan then asked Dr. Bushburg, "What guarantee do we have that RF standards won't be changed."  Mr. Bushburg's reply, "There is no guarantee."

 

Mark Kelso, director of program management, came to the podium to answer several questions.  He stated that the antennas gave out a "directional" signal.  Councilman Gemmil explained that Council has not seen layout plans of the project.

 

Mayor Schwan asked Newpath CEO Kavanagh if once the Newpath towers are erected could "other companies like Newpath, come into Carefree and build more towers?," Kavanagh said, "yes they can."  Councilman Coady asked Kavanagh if AT&T was investing in Newpath and Kavanagh said they were not.  Newpath's Mark Kelso then explained that the system was not designed for just one carrier per tower, it was designed for all carriers.

 

Councilman Coady asked Attorney Legarde, "are there any other companies looking to build cell towers in Carefree."  Ms. Legarde said, "no other company is looking at Carefree because they don't have a carrier that is interested." Coady then asked Steve Garcia if Newpath could get to Desert Mountain without going through Carefree and Garcia's answer was "we will have to go through parts of Carefree."  As a follow up question, Coady asked if Next-G (a competitor of Newpath's) can come into Carefree?  The CEO said the possibility was "remote."  Legarde then said "I saw the offer that Next-G made to Scottsdale and you (Council) would not be happy with it."

 

Councilwoman Vanik asked the Newpath's CEO, "what is the liability to the town?," Mr. Kavanagh said, "there is none."

 

During the citizens portion another Carefree resident directed the following question at all Newpath representatives in the room:  "do any of you have a cell tower by your house?"  There were no answers given by anyone from Newpath.  Another concerned citizen stated that "RF radiation was comparable
to taking a little bit of arsenic at a time, it will eventually kill you."  He also stated that there are now claims that "Senator Ted Kennedy's brain tumor was caused from his continual use of a cell phone by his right ear."

 

Another Carefree resident voiced serious concerns that if the town of Carefree allowed Newpath to install their towers then "what's to stop other carriers from demanding that their towers be erected."  "Next thing you know we'll
have towers everywhere we look throughout our neighborhood," he said.

 

Carefree resident John Traynor said he attended both open houses that Newpath held in Carefree and he only heard one person who was in favor of Newpath's project.  He said, "I asked questions of Newpath, 'why the
necessity...why here?," he said the responses he received were "vague and not at all satisfying."

 

Another citizen asked if tower emissions endangered wildlife (protected under the Federal Endangered Species Act).  There was no definitive answer given.

 

Considering the scope of the project, in the view of many of those who attended, there is a need for further meetings to discuss other concerns regarding this matter.