Story last updated at 7:10 p.m. on Thursday, July 30, 1998

                  Neighbors ask council to remove tower

                  By Dan Scanlan
                  Staff writer

                  The battle over a controversial digital telephone antenna erected 35 feet
                  behind homes off Marbon Road in Mandarin continued during Tuesday's
                  City Council meeting.

                  More residents pleaded with the city to remove the antenna added atop a
                  taller power pole June 6 and berated the city for allowing Sprint PCS to
                  replace an 80-foot Jacksonville Electric Authority power pole with a 97-foot
                  pole, and then add the antenna behind the Autumn Glen Estates community.

                  A member of the Southeast Citizens Planning and Advisory Committee
                  asked the city to ''take all necessary steps to remove this tower,'' claiming it
                  is a violation of the city's 1996 tower ordinance. Neighbors Mike Costlow
                  and Theodore Snyder demanded the antenna be removed, echoing similar
                  protests by residents and council members at a previous council meeting.

                  ''My concern is that there is a loophole in an ordinance designed to protect
                  us from this intrusion,'' Costlow said. ''Is there a Marbon Road landfill or a
                  Mandarin toxic waste dump in our future because of another loophole?''

                  ''It is an eyesore. If you have seen the pictures, you know it is,'' added
                  Snyder. ''We are asking that you please remove it.''

                  The continuing controversy comes as assistant general counsel Rick
                  Mullaney investigates what led up to the permits that allowed the antenna to
                  be placed atop a taller power pole. Meanwhile, Councilman Dick Kravitz
                  has filed an amendment that could modify the city's 2-year-old telephone
                  tower ordinance so that an antenna could never be installed within 250 feet
                  of a home unless the applicant gets a zoning variance.

                  Sprint PCS replaced the pole as part of a new all-digital telephone network
                  coming later this summer to Jacksonville and Gainesville. The taller pole is
                  part of a 6-mile-long, 100-foot-wide JEA easement behind a number of
                  Mandarin neighborhoods. The pole and antenna were approved by Building
                  and Zoning Division Chief Tom Goldsbury in May under the tower
                  ordinance. The General Counsel's Office supported the antenna placement
                  despite a complaint from neighbor Jeffrey Smith.

                  A number of citizens joined Smith at a July 14 council meeting to complain
                  that someone misinterpreted the 1996 ordinance, saying it should have
                  allowed an antenna atop an existing power pole, not a new, taller pole.
                  Numerous council members also questioned the legality of the antenna,
                  asking Sprint PCS to move the Mandarin antenna.

                  Since then, Mullaney has been investigating the procedures that led up to that
                  antenna to see if the residents' and council claims that the ordinance was
                  misinterpreted are correct. He won't say what his conclusions are yet.

                  ''I want for all the groups involved to be sensitive to the issues involved. We
                  need to understand the residents' concerns when it comes to the aesthetics of
                  the neighborhood,'' Mullaney said. ''. . . On the other hand, when you have a
                  JEA right of way, that becomes a very logical location for power poles or
                  telecommunications poles. There is a balancing of many issues.''

                  Kravitz still hopes he can get rid of the antenna that sparked the amendment
                  two weeks ago. He plans to meet with neighbors and Mullaney in the next
                  few weeks to determine the fate of the current antenna. He then plans to
                  work on his amendment to prevent future neighborhood incursions.

                  ''The bill is for the future ones,'' the Mandarin councilman said. ''Let's see if
                  Mullaney has a way to figure out if we could get Sprint or the city to take the
                  existing tower down.''

                  Sprint spokesman Dan Wilinsky said Sprint is willing to talk with everyone
                  involved to come up with a ''palatable solution in the spirit of being a good
                  neighbor.'' But he said this Mandarin site is critical to the company's digital
                  telephone network.

                  Autumn Glen resident Jim Carr has set up an Internet site on the tower, with
                  links to the city ordinance covering antennas as well as e-mail addresses to
                  the mayor and city to complain. That address is

                  www.angelfire.com/fl/celltower/.