By Dan Scanlan
          Staff writer

          A new digital telephone antenna is behind Jeffrey Smith's house on Catrakee
          Drive in Mandarin, but he says the city had no right to allow it to be built.

          The city's Building and Zoning Division allowed Sprint PCS to replace an
          existing power pole with a new and much taller pole on June 6, then erect
          its antenna atop it. Now Smith says the whole structure sits too high in
          the sky in plain view of his neighborhood.

          The city said the new pole and antenna are allowable under city law, as do
          Sprint officials. But Smith says the new construction violates
          Jacksonville's 2-year-old tower ordinance, which he said should have only
          allowed that antenna atop the existing power pole, not a new one.

          ''They have stuck up a big new pole to support the antenna, then reattached
          the existing power cables to the new poles. Then they look you straight in
          the face and say the principal use of this pole is for power and the
          antenna is just an ancillary use. It is pretty strange,'' said Smith, an
          attorney. ''They seem to be saying that you can add to the existing
          structure. I think that is just baloney.''

          Sprint PCS is planning to start digital telephone service in the
          Jacksonville and Gainesville areas later this summer. The Mandarin antenna
          was built atop a new power pole on a Jacksonville Electric Authority right
          of way behind the Autumn Glen Estates community, just south of Loretto
          Road. City Building and Zoning Division records show the Jacksonville
          Electric Authority authorized the replacement pole in a May 6 memo, then
          the city granted the building permit.

          Sprint spokesman Dan Wilinsky said they needed to build a taller power pole
          because the existing pole was too short. He said the taller pole was needed
          to ensure the best reception for their customers, and believes everything
          was done legally.

          ''We believe this tower meets height requirements and we have been working
          with the city to make sure this meets height standards,'' he said. ''We
          have also had discussions with the folks concerned about the tower and we
          welcome the opportunity to meet with concerned residents.''

          And City Building and Zoning Division Chief Tom Goldsbury said his office
          granted Sprint PCS a permit for a new pole because it is allowable under
          the tower ordinance.

          ''We made a determination on the plans that were submitted, that what they
          were doing was legal,'' Goldsbury said. ''It was questioned thereafter and
          we went to the city attorney and they upheld our opinion.''

          The city's tower ordinance was the result of a massive influx in requests
          to erect digital telephone towers around Jacksonville in 1996, after the
          Federal Communications Commission approved a new radio frequency for
          digital telephones. Faced with the prospect of hundreds of digital
          telephone towers being built around the city, the City Council crafted a
          new ordinance that limited telephone tower heights and prohibited them
          within 250 feet of a home.

          But after hearing from Smith, City Councilman Dick Kravitz, whose district
          includes the Marbon Road area, said the city had no right to allow a new
          pole to be installed and claim it was only a change to an existing
          structure. The councilman says he plans to meet with city attorneys as soon
          as this week to change the basic ordinance so that what happened can't be
          used again.

          ''I don't know if it will help this one ... But I am in agreement with the
          citizens out there that a permit should not have been given,'' Kravitz
          said. ''That is a replacement pole and the ordinance is quite clear on what
          can be done to a replacement pole. But the administration gave Sprint
          permission to put up a new pole and put the tower on the new pole which is
          wider and bigger.''

          Smith met with Goldsbury on June 8 to learn if the new antenna was legal,
          and said he was told the taller pole was allowed under a provision of the
          zoning code because it is part of an existing structure, namely all of the
          power poles. Smith said his understanding of the ordinance says otherwise,
          and he will continue to fight what he called the city's ''Through the
          Looking Glass, Alice in Wonderland-kind of,'' decision.