Leaning to the Right Index of Articles
"The Powers of Bowers"
They Hypocrisy of Curt Bowers and the Jeff Davis
Parish Police Jury Keeping our children safe
from falling cell phone towers while Spraying them down with Pesticides.
Revised March 10, 2005
There has been an effort in the Hathaway community to obtain a cellular tower to improve cellular service. At the school there is either no service or sporadic service. A meeting was scheduled on March 9, 2005 and a petition was passed around and was available at Butchies Corner. I didn’t bother signing the petition, nor did I attend the Jeff Davis Parish Police jury meeting covering the subject I figured it was a no-brainer. It turns out it wasn’t a no-brainer. I did get to witness a conversation between Juror Larry Fontenot and a couple of Hathaway residents and was able to pick up on what happened. I will have to wait for the article to come out in the paper to get a better scoop, but based on the discussion, it didn’t go well. Once I have some additional info I’ll revise or do an addendum to this article.
It turns out that Curt Bowers with the Jeff Davis Parish Mosquito Abatement District (JDPMAD) was on hand to voice his concerns about the tower being in the flight path of his Mosquito abatement planes and he had concerns that the tower did not meet specifications. The cellular company engineers were on hand to argue that it was in fact up to specifications.
Several years ago a Jeff Davis Parish Mosquito Abatement District Pilot, tragically lost his life when his plane hit the top of trees in Acadia Parish. Since that time the JDPMAD, has seized the opportunity to gain its share of control over the airspace of Jeff Davis Parish in the name of safety.
Some 4 – 6 years ago, The sheepish Police Jury had given authority to Curt Bowers and his merry band of Mosquito men authority over the construction of towers, the lighting on towers and other specifications, again in the name of safety.
Mr. Bowers fought against the location behind Butchies
Corner, which is across from Hathaway High School and prevented the construction
of a much-needed cellular tower. Police Juror Robert Broussard made the motion
and it died for lack of second. According to reports a couple of police jurors
were not surprisingly in the dark about the whole issue. There is a safety
concern of a 300’ tower being located near the Hathaway School and I heard Juror
Fontenot say that "he would never vote for anything that would kill or injur a
child". There is concern that the tower could fall on a child.
With Safety being of utmost concern, lets take a closer look at it. Mosquito
control is spraying, presumably safe but toxic pesticides on our children while
they play outside and in their play yards where they return to play later. Yet,
we are concerned that a tower will fall on them, and they have the audacity to
say they are concerned for their safety. This is nothing short of blind
hypocrisy. I would bet my last dollar that the odds of pesticide poisoning
is greater than a tower falling on one of them, at any precise moment.
The argument that the KPLC tower fell in a field in Fenton, was used. This tower collapsed while under construction, it did not just fall over. Mr. Bowers claims that the tower would be in a flight path. If that’s true why is the Hathaway School, full of children, under the flight path of the Jeff Davis Parish Mosquito Abatement District? One of it’s planes crashed already. If we are concerned that a tower can fall on the school and injur children, shouldn’t we also be concerned that the Abatement District is spraying pesticides on our school yards and at the risk of a plane crash? Afterall, if this proposed tower site is in the flight path then the school is too! I'm sorry....at what point did we stop talking about the safety of children? Or are we just going to talk out both sides of our mouth?
Mr. Bowers is the Mosquito Man, he should not have the power of the FCC and the FAA. Mr. Bowers needs to manage to the risks, not set policies or have control over towers that are enforced by by the FCC and in some respects the FAA. If the risks are too high because of towers in the proximity of the flight paths then he needs to ground the planes and buy more trucks. In the early days, when the abatement district was actually effective, they had no planes.
There are risks associated with Mosquito born diseases.
There are also risks associated with the control of mosquitoes. The public,
shaking in fear of West Nile virus has made a trade off between the risk of
pesticide poisoning and groundwater contamination, and the possibility of plane
crashes in a neighborhood and the abatement of Mosquito's. Those are the risks.
There are risks associated with the abatement of mosquitoes.......live with it!
We have to! The plane that unfortunately crashed did not hit a tower....as I recall,
it hit some trees!
I wasn't at the meeting. I'm sorry I missed it, but then again neither was the
FCC, FAA, or the pilots of the crop dusting services. The bottom line in
this parish is that we will have to live with sorry ass cell service all year
long because Curt Bowers is exercising safety for his 4 months off and on
depending on weather and depending on
the money left in the budget to fly. The JDPMAD and Mr. Bowers needs to ground it's planes until it
can figure out a way to avoid the trees, towers, schools and neighborhoods
around and under it's flight path. Afterall, were still talking about safety.
Unfortunately the discussion does not include the public since an open
discussion was not allowed at the Police Jury Meeting.
If the subject is "Safety", then the discussion should be about safety. Lets talk about the pesticides we have remained silent about. Lets talk about the possibility of a "mosquito plane" crashing into a school or neighborhood. Now I know why the citizens of Acadia Parish fought against establishing a Mosquito District of their own, of which Curt Bowers submitted a bid for in the hopes of taking control in 2 parishes.
With all this Mosquito man power, it won't be long that local residents will be looking at fines or jail time for Mosquito Abatement violations. (Louisiana Revised Statute RS 33:7724)
It is evident that Mr. Fontenot from District 9 is not to
interested in seeing a tower set up at Butchies Corner, which is not in his
district. He did not seem to have much of a problem seeing a tower built in his
district at Spot's corner. Incidentally there was a concern that the tower would
fall on the gas pumps at butchies but that same concern did not exist at Spot's
corner at the corner of Hwy 26 and 190 at Elton. They too have gas pumps. The
height of the tower could easily reach the pumps. So what's going on here? Is it
a case of discrimination against Butchies Corner because it is owned by a woman?
Is there something at stake when a juror allows a tower to be built in his
district but fights when it is in someone elses district?
Other jurors had concerns that lightning would hit the tower, travel underground
several hundred feet and hit a non-conductive underground fiberglass tank
containing gasoline and causing an explosion. The likelihood of this actually
happening is....well...virtually non-existent! Fact of the matter is they are
making up shit to prevent a tower from being put up behind Butchies Corner. Why?
What is the real reason? It sure can't for be the safety of the same children they
are spraying with pesticides!
The Mosquito Abatement director Curt Bowers is fighting this tower the same way
he has been fighting with all the owners of towers and proposed towers in the parish. Mr. Bowers is
not the FCC and he is not the FAA and not even an air traffic controller for the
airport. What is he doing controlling the airspace in Jeff Davis Parish? Mr.
Bowers should not have this type of decision making power. Mr. Bowers, when all
is said and done and all the dust settles.........is only an employee of the
parish!
Just my opinion....yours may differ!