Northampton Township Neighborhood Fights Cell Towers

By Oren Liebermann and Todd Quinones

NORTHAMPTON TWP., Pa. (CBS) -- The manicured lawns in Village Shires are a point of pride for the neighborhood, but the latest yard work has left torn up grass and freshly dug ditches.

"They were out here all day, digging deep holes and trenches," said neighbor Suzanne DeLong.

Boston-based American Tower Corporation has put up cell towers in Northampton Township, some right in people's front yards. And now work crews have been getting the ground ready for twelve more 25-foot towers.

"It's been a real mess," said Michelle Held. "Just the peace and quiet in the neighborhood is destroyed. You long to hear only a lawnmower."

Held posted signs in her yard and launched a Facebook page to fight the towers. All the utilities in her neighborhood are underground, and she says the towers would be an eyesore.  Now she may get a T-Mobile tower in her yard.

"I put it out there to see if there were other people who felt the way I did," said Held, "and boy did we find them."

Paperwork filed by American Tower Corp. says the tower will go up at 80 or 75 David Street, two addresses that do not exist. American Tower did not return phone calls or emails from Eyewitness News, which is the same response Audrey Shapiro got.

"We can certainly understand having great cell phone reception," Shapirdo said, "but we get great reception here, and we just haven't been communicated to and we want answers and we want them now."

Township administrators say the state's Public Utility Commission gave the company the right to install the towers. And after the township lost in court, they say there is not much else they can do. But homeowners vow to keep fighting for the property they work so hard to maintain.

To visit the Facebook page, go to www.facebook.com/nocelltowers.