Baldwin Borough's Zoning Hearing Board faces a tall order in the coming month.

Several residents have bitterly disputed a proposal by T-Mobile to install an antenna on a Duquesne Light transmission pole located in a residential zoning area near Deervue Drive and Willett Road.

The board held an appeal hearing on April 17 to allow T-Mobile representatives to make their case for a zoning variance and has 45 days to decide if T-Mobile can "co-locate" its antenna on the Duquesne Light pole. Jeff Jenkins, a subcontractor for T-Mobile, submitted the appeal form on the company's behalf.

"T-Mobile's installation will not change the essential characteristic of the existing neighborhood and the hardship has not been created by the applicant," Jenkins wrote on the appeal form.

He declined to comment on the proposal and appeal due to contractual restrictions.

T-Mobile wants to improve coverage in the Streets Run Road area by adding the antenna, several people who attended the meeting said.

The cell phone company proposed co-location on the same pole in early 2006 and was denied by the board.

Much of the board's decision was based on one borough rule: Telecommunications facilities and tower sites -- even when they are co-located with other, non-communication facilites -- are not allowed in residential zoning districts.

The board drew justification for its decision from Baldwin's "Communications Facilities and Tower Sites" ordinance, which was adopted in Feb. 1997. The ordinance restricts towers and antennas from being any closer than 250 feet from the property line of any residential zone.

Duquesne Light's pole is located 205 feet from several residential properties, according to the 2006 board decision.

Of the three current board members, only Shawn Cusick was involved with the 2006 decision. He did not return calls.

A concern among many opponents is radiation. They already worry about the effects of the current transmission tower, and fear the addition of a cell phone antenna would worsen the situation.

Cell phone towers emit radio waves, which can cause health problems for people who experience long terms of heavy exposure, the American Cancer Society Web site states. However, the site says research specifically on cell phone tower levels of exposure is inconclusive.

Lois Bruce, a Willett Road resident, attended both the 2006 hearings and the April hearing.

"I feel it does have to do with cancer and things," Bruce said. "There are a lot of people down here with cancer. I'm one of them. My husband had it."

Dottie Ward, a Deervue Drive resident, echoed Bruce's concerns. She said several neighbors, including younger men and women, died of cancer. Ward's husband died of a lung condition with no identifiable origin -- she hasn't ruled out the transmission pole as the cause of the condition.

"We don't need anything else to ruin our neighborhood," Ward said. "It's a nice, little, quiet dead-end street."

Several of the residents discount the importance of better reception along Streets Run Road. They expressed a similar sentiment -- better cell phone service in an industrial area should not supercede the safety of a residential neighborhood.

But Deervue resident Ruth Murray, for one, worries their objections will be ignored.

"You're only the poor schmuck," Murray said. "(The cell phone companies) don't care what they do to you."

Murray said approval of a T-Mobile antenna would only cause more problems for the area in the years to come.

"There's a multitude of companies that are going to get on it," she said. "If one gets on it, all of them are going to get on it."