Parents of students at PS185, concerned over the installation of cell phone towers atop neighboring 8701 Ridge Boulevard, will hold a protest march Thursday afternoon at 2:30pm.

The march kicks off from PS185, up to the Verizon cellphone store on 5th ave and 86th street where parents will establish a picket line.

Parents are demanding Verizon remove the equipment – which has grown from 4 towers to more than 8 since January and currently face directly into classrooms and a refurbished rooftop play area – while calling on local officials to institute tighter controls over the future placement of such equipment.

At a Thursday PTA meeting, State Senator Marty Golden revived talk of a bill he first proposed three years ago, when Sprint/Nextel was considering placing similar equipment adjacent to St. Anselm’s school, banning cell tower construction within 500 ft of schools .

The bill was never passed, but the negative PR from that campaign was enough to get Sprint to squash their plans.

Complicating efforts this time around is the fact the equipment is already installed, lessening the likelihood anything will be removed. However, at that same PTA meeting, Councilman Gentile reports Verizon is cooperating with the community by offering to reposition the existing receivers so they are not facing the school.

A solution that doesn’t allay fears of parents like Evans and Maryann Kotsis, Dolores Lozupone who maintain that given the saturation of this equipment in relation to the density of schools and childcare facilities in it’s vicinity – anythign less than full removal of the equipment and a moratorium on its construction will not suffice.

Right now, under the Federal Telecommunication’s Act of 1996, local community boards have no oversight authority – although Councilman Gentile is working on a bill that would force the DOB and contractors to put the community on notice whenever permits for this kind of work are filed.

As of now, the DOB and contractors are only required to deal amongst themselves – and the building owner.