School Board Approves Lease for Cell Tower at Smoke Rise Elementary

In a deal worth as much as $31,200 annually, the DeKalb County Board of Education voted to allow T-Mobile USA, Inc. a lease on a bit of land at Smoke Rise Elementary to build a cell tower.

Both of the school's representatives, Paul Womack and Pamela Speaks, voted in favor of including Smoke Rise on the list of nine schools where T-Mobile will be able to get a lease.

Speaks said she'd heard objections from only three school communities -- Smoke Rise not among them. Womack rejected arguments on any health risk, putting any radiation danger at about the same level as a cell phone.

The county school system will collect annual rent between $21,600 and $31,200 per tower, adjusted for inflation, depending on how much equipment is eventually installed on each site. The amount of equipment also determines the one-time payment to each host school: somewhere between $25,000 and $100,000.

T-Mobile proposes siting the tower on the corner of Hugh Howell and Silver Hill roads.

Schools will have the final say on the shape and color of each tower. A drawing of a 150-foot-tall imitation pine tree shape at Smoke Rise shows the tower far above the real pine trees.

Now T-Mobile needs county planning and zoning approval. According to the company, permits plus building generally takes three to four months per tower.

T-Mobile originally sought a dozen leases, but the school board cut three, including Brockett Elementary. Central DeKalb school board member Don McChesney asked for the cuts, saying those communities wanted to reject the towers.

Board member Donna Edler proposed cutting all the schools including Smoke Rise on health grounds. "I'm not one to pick and choose" among children of different communities, she said.