DATE: Monday, October 13, 1997              TAG: 9710130127

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

TYPE: Letter 

                                            LENGTH:   71 lines

CRITICS: NO CELL-PHONE TOWER, NO BEER AT FUNCTION

Dear Editor:

There is another pollution battle being fought in our county; it is visual. Telespectrum/360 Communications has asked for a variance in height to build a 180-foot communications (cell phone) tower on the Beasley property in Colington. This is only 28 feet shorter than the Cape Hatteras light. The current limit, by ordinance, is 52 feet.

Did you know that Dare already has 33 towers? Do you know how close this is to First Flight Airport? Do you know how close this is to the flight path used by emergency helicopters in and out of OB Medical Center? At the two previous meetings, neither of these questions was adequately answered for me.

There is to be another meeting tonight to again consider this issue. It is to be hoped that everyone be allowed to speak.

Residents of Dare County, please come out Monday night and make your feelings known. I for one have no wish for more visual pollution!

Elaine Goodwin

Kill Devil Hills

Dear Editor:

Treble jeopardy. Never heard of it? That's when the Dare County Board of Adjustment requires the taxpayers to defend - for the third time - against a Telespectrum Inc. zoning variance request that would allow them to put a 180-foot cell phone tower next to the Waters Edge residential subdivision on Little Colington Island when the tower could just as effectively be placed on the Colington Water Tower, with revenues to the county and not a private party.

Come to the variance meeting today at 6:30 p.m. at 204 Ananias Dare St., Manteo, to see if there will be quadruple jeopardy.

Robert Miller

Nags Head

Dear Editor:

Is it proper to serve beer on town property at a town function put on by the Nags Head Volunteer Fire Department, where there are also young children present? I think that this is entirely improper.

I was told that ``we can give it away and that isn't against the law.'' Let's suppose that I had drunk a couple of those beers and after leaving that barbecue supper, I had a wreck, and hurt or killed someone (in North Carolina you can be held responsible).

Who would get sued? Wouldn't it be the Nags Head Volunteer Fire Department Inc., and the Town of Nags Head? Do they have the money to put on the line for this kind of lawsuit? My tax dollars can be spent more wisely.

The main purpose of the Nags Head Volunteer Fire Department Inc. was to put out the fires and to assist our neighbors. It also was to be a nonpolitical and a nonprofit corporation. Have the bylaws and charter been changed? I helped form this corporation and gave it to the citizens of Nags Head. My time and work at no cost to get and keep this Fire Department for the benefit of the citizens of Nags Head and our neighbors.

I thought that the main purpose of the barbecue and Annual Community Awareness Day, etc., was to raise money for the Fire Department.

But I have noticed in the past several years that it seems to have turned into a political party, especially the past one on Sept. 27. The Nags Head Volunteer Fire Department Inc., EMTs and part of the Police Department were politicizing most coming in. Especially the ones who are running for office with their supporters.

Does the voting public realize that this is a voting bloc, that if their candidate is elected, they would be putting forth their own agendas with a majority on the board? I don't think government is supposed to work this way, government workers making their own rules and regulations.

When you go to the polls, know whom you are voting for and the purpose the person is trying to get on the board for.

Carl Nunemaker

Nags Head

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