INSIDE

All quiet on the Western front

“I think all this stuff should go to the sheriff,” said parks board member Shelley Damewood.

At their February 1 regular meeting board member Linda Hughes told the board that the person or group who had registered the web site www.wakeuppointroberts.com had not identified themselves in registration information available through the registrar Schlund and Partner, but they had provided a local telephone number. It was that of board chair Irene Waters.

“They are falsely using her number,” Hughes said. “I wrote to the owner of that web site and asked him to cease using it. I also asked the registrar to look into this.” Parks board members encouraged Hughes to pursue the fraudulent use of Waters’ telephone number.

The web site posts information about the dangers of cellular telephones and electromagnetic fields. While John Hammell, one of the most vocal opponents of plans to lease parks board land to Verizon Wireless to erect a cell transmission tower, has said that neither he nor his group Point Roberts Alliance for Sound Public Health Policy were the creators of the web site, he has actively promoted the site through email campaigns.

Hammell has also, in email communications with the parks board, warned that the web site creator would finance any legal action to block the tower project. Hughes reported that her last communication with Hammell was a request for him to “cease using threatening language in communicating with the board.”

On February 6 registration information on the web site was changed to list the registrant as One and One, a web hosting and private registration provider in Chester-brook, Pennsylvania.

The February 1 meeting was quieter than the parks board has seen in months, with no one in attendance in support or in opposition to the Verizon project. The board responded to a request by the Meridian Group, the land use firm representing Verizon, by signing a letter authorizing the company to submit a conditional use permit application to Whatcom County Planning and Development Services. County staff will review the project proposal for compliance with county codes and will submit their recommendation to the county hearing examiner, who will hold public hearings and issue a final decision.

Waters added that Verizon had agreed to lower the height of the tower under 200 feet so it would not need to have a light on top and to paint the structure forest green to help camouflage it. “This is good,” Hughes said.

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