The Sagaponack Village Board pushed back at perceived misinformation surrounding the proposed 100-foot cellphone tower set to be built behind Village Hall at a board meeting last week.
“This is an absolute deception,” the village attorney Brian Egan said at the Sept. 18 meeting, holding up a recent full-page advertisement recently placed in local newspapers by opponents of the proposed cellphone tower.
The advertisement depicts a pole — complete with panels and cables — jutting up from behind Sagaponack Village Hall. Near the bottom of the page, the advertisement describes the image as a “rendering of what the proposed cell tower would look like.”
The image “was not sourced from the village,” Mr. Egan said, and it does not depict a modern cellphone tower. Instead, the Sagaponack tower will be a straight grayish pole.
Sagaponack has already approved the tower as part of a 55-year lease agreement with Homeland Towers. The village is set to receive 40 percent of gross revenue from the tower, Mayor Bill Tillotson said previously, while it will have space for four cell carriers that have not yet been confirmed. The project has been in the works for over a year.
At the last board meeting, residents of Sagaponack and people who work there expressed concern about the process by which the proposal was accepted. Most of the meetings about the proposal were held during the winter — between October and March — but many Sagaponack residents are seasonal, opponents argued.
“This was not done in the dark and everybody did have a right to be heard,” Mr. Egan said at the recent meeting, claiming that the village sent out reminder emails about the public cellphone tower meetings.
For years, the village has been collecting emails to keep residents informed of local developments, such as this one. Now, the village has a list of around 600 email addresses.
Since the location behind Village Hall has sparked controversy, Mr. Egan walked through the legal process by which the spot was chosen.
Location preference was first given to the site of an existing cellphone tower. Since Sagaponack does not already have a tower, the village then looked for a tall building, which Sagaponack also lacks. By law, the village then looked at a municipal property for the site of the tower, settling on the grounds of Village Hall.
With this, the village completed the process in compliance with local laws, Mr. Egan added.
Others have expressed concerns about the health effects of 5G technology, but Mr. Egan countered on Sept. 18 that “there is no legitimate science to support that.”
In addition, the American Cancer Society has concluded that there is “no evidence” for 5G technology posing a health risk. At the entrance to the meeting room last week, the village laid out copies of a report from the society.
When Mr. Egan was finished with his remarks, the board opened the floor to the public to discuss the issue.
“This board, you should be ashamed of yourselves,” the Sag Harbor attorney Alex Kriegsman said at the podium. Having been to board meetings across the East End, Mr. Kriegsman said he had “never seen an attorney behave” as Mr. Egan had.
“If you’ve made a decision and you think that is the right decision, you should be able to defend it yourself,” Mr. Kriegsman said to the board.
As a result, Mr. Egan should be recused from the matter, he added, and another attorney should take his place in giving the village legal advice.
Karina Forrest took the podium next. Ms. Forrest is a North Sea resident, but her family has operated Loaves and Fishes on Sagg Main Street for 44 years.
“I don’t want to vilify anyone here. That is not my intention,” said Ms. Forrest, who is a leading voice in opposition to the tower. Ms. Forrest hired Mr. Kriegsman for legal representation.
“There are many studies that show that these cell towers . . . do cause cancer,” Ms. Forrest said, adding later, “In my next subsequent newsletter, I will share with you my sources.”
Despite Mr. Egan’s assurances, Ms. Forrest said the process “hasn’t been completely transparent,” adding that 5G health studies have been “short-term, not long-term.”
On that topic, Mayor Tillotson reiterated that the village is not permitted to make decisions based on concerns about radiation.
“I don’t want to move Loaves and Fishes,” Ms. Forrest said. “My grandmother started that business.” Nonetheless, she has been “trying to find a way forward,” despite the “slim hope.”
Marilee Foster took a different approach, objecting to the tower’s affront to the historic character of Sagaponack. Ms. Foster asked for clarity on the village code, which requires a cellphone tower to be at least 500 feet from a historic structure.
“Isn’t Sagg Main Street a historic district?” she asked, to which Mr. Egan responded that a historic structure is legally different from a historic district.
Ms. Foster maintains a house for employees near her family farm, which is located next to the site of the proposed tower. Now, Ms. Foster hopes the village will look for a site farther from the residence in the historic district.
Nonetheless, the village has already agreed to the contract and plans to move forward. The municipality is not permitted to deny service to its residents, Mayor Tillotson has previously stated, and cell service is a modern necessity for emergency services.
