Anne-Jo Piselli, who lives by the Harbour Inn and SUNY Maritime College, has organized residents to fight against the large fiber-optic antenna system, housed in a large box attached to the telephone pole in front of her house.
The Schuyler Terrace resident presented 75 signatures of local residents to the office of Councilman Jimmy Vacca on June 24, who has agreed to look into the matter.
“This community is a paradise, its our little haven,” she said of the waterfront community. “What is this thing on the pole doing here?” she said.
She wishes local residents had been consulted before the antenna was placed so close to her house.
“It’s an eye sore, and I’m scared for my health,” she said. “It’s five feet from my porch!”
She feels the equipment is too close to a residence, adding that she overheard workers commenting that they hadn’t seen the equipment so close to a house in the past.
Her main concern is her young children, who play outside the home.
“Do you think we want this in front of our kids?” said Piselli, who has organized her neighbors around the cause.
NextG Networks, a telecommunications company licensed as a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier by the State of New York Public Service Commission, is responsible for the antenna, and on its website states the power output of their “small profile equipment” is comparable to an individual cell phone.
The company also feels its small profile antennas, the kind installed by Piselli’s home, are not a bother to the community.
“These antenna are typically located inconspicuously on lampposts, utility poles, buildings, street lights and a host of other public and private places,” the company states on its website.
NextG did not return calls for an official reply to Piselli’s complaints.
Councilman Vacca did not feel he had the proper information to comment on the matter, but promised to examine the situation further and offer help if justified.
