Council won’t touch 80-foot pole

As to AT&T’s informal appeal to the City Council to reconsider its denial of an 80-foot cell tower on Lovall Valley Road, the panel, with a 4-1 vote, announced that it was disinclined to acquiesce to that request. In other words, in this case Councilmember Steve Barbose’s, don’t threaten us… The next step, and it seems likely given AT&T litigious history, is a lawsuit against the city. A federal law from 1996, which, in terms of technology is back when analog dinosaurs roamed the earth, gives the company the presumptive right to build such towers if they meet coverage needs. Health concerns are not a factor, that law says, as long as radiation emissions meet FCC guidelines. Nervous neighbors cite studies that say those levels are arbitrarily high, and should be updated based on science that has emerged since mobile phones were about as mobile as a brick with an antennae. Then again, the demand for bandwidth has exploded since then, and that’s the demand AT&T says it needs new towers to meet… The fact that health concerns are legally immaterial to the argument certainly simplifies things. Otherwise you might question the cell towers located at the high school and atop the hospital.

When he was sworn in as Sonoma mayor, Tom Rouse promised efficiency, as in keeping city council meetings succinct and on track. Perhaps the extreme example, then, is that the scheduled meeting of January 22 has been canceled. Nothing than couldn’t wait until February 3, it seems.

A countywide ban on plastic shopping bags is coming, as soon as September, after Tuesday’s vote by the city councils Rohnert Park and Santa Rosa. Fundraising idea for non-profits: put your logo on a cloth bag and give it to donors. What the heck, it worked for PBS.

It was never consider a ‘formula’ store, but the name of one corporate chain is gone from the Plaza. Where’d Ben & Jerry’s go? Explains Troy & Dawn Marmaduke of the Plaza ice creamery, “We had to make a change and our new name, Grandma Linda’s Ice Cream, is in memory of my Mom and our kids’ Grandma. We have a wonderful product, Umpqua Brand, and we still cater and do events of all sizes. We are still at our same location on the Sonoma Plaza.”

The water-saving suggestion of switching to straight scotch: not all that helpful. What’s next, no ice?