MARIETTA - Members of the Cobb school board will revote on a 150-foot cell tower it already approved for Eastvalley Elementary School.

The board is revoting on the tower after being hit with a temporary restraining order in Cobb Superior Court for failing to give proper notice about its original vote.

Three residents who live near the school, on Lower Roswell Road, won a 30-day restraining order on Sept. 21 to halt work on the tower. They believe the school board violated state Open Meetings Law on July 23 by voting to approve the tower the same day Rev. Dr. John Crooks placed it on the agenda.

Chairman Dr. John Abraham and Superintendent Fred Sanderson, who set the agenda, placed it near the bottom of tonight's agenda on "consent" as opposed to "discussion," below such items as the board's legislative priorities and future agenda requests.

Crooks said the item was placed on the agenda to give the public advance notice of the vote and to "reaffirm the decision made before."

"I think we need to settle the issue as quickly as possible," Crooks said.

Eastvalley mom Carrie Welkis said it would be better if the board voted on the item at the beginning of the 7 p.m. meeting since a number of parents have to bring their children and would not be able to stay late.

"It would be nice if they did it first off so we could get on with the rest of our lives. I don't know how to interpret why it's at the end of the agenda," Welkis said.

Crooks said he favored moving tonight's vote to the beginning of the meeting so as not to make his constituents wait around, but that is Abraham's call. Board Vice Chairwoman Lynnda Crowder-Eagle said there is nothing wrong with having the vote near the end of the meeting. If parents want to speed up tonight's meeting, she said, they can forgo public comment.

"We have to sit through the meeting, that's the procedure," she said.

While she wouldn't outright say how she will vote tonight, she did say, "It was voted on (previously). I believe we're under contract with them (T-Mobile)."

Board member David Morgan said he may vote against the cell tower, though there is the matter of the signed contract, and school board attorney Glenn Brock has still not told him whether it can be canceled.

"More important to me is that I think these people have assembled themselves, shown persistence and gone to great lengths to say they don't like it," Morgan said. The few who support the tower are in the minority, he said.

Crowder-Eagle said she is not pleased with the entire situation.

"I hate how this has happened. I hate the controversy this has caused the neighborhood," she said, adding: "I'm too nice for this job. I should be out helping flood victims."

Board member Alison Bartlett said she is praying for wisdom in how to vote.

"I don't know what the answer is anymore. It's a bitter taste no matter what happens. We've divided a community, and that is not what a school system is supposed to do," Bartlett said. "This has been mishandled from the start."

In his Sept. 21 affidavit, Crooks testified how he polled people at such places as the QT gas station, Kroger, Little Caesars Pizza and Rite Aid Pharmacy.

"No one during these discussions voiced opposition to the cell tower," he said at the time.

T-Mobile will pay the Cobb School District $150,000 for a five-year lease to build a 150-foot cell-phone tower at Eastvalley Elementary School, according to the contract district leaders signed with the company on Sept. 9.

The lease will automatically renew for another five-year term at the same rent unless written notice is given. The tower will be able to accommodate at least three wireless communication providers, and if T-Mobile sublets any part, the school district would get at least $800 per month under that deal, according to the contract.

The five-year rent of $150,000 works out to about $30,000 per year, though the rent would be paid upfront in one lump sum. T-Mobile will also give $5,000 to Eastvalley's Parent Teacher Association upon execution of the deal, according to the contract.

Sign-in for public comment begins at 6:30 p.m. with the meeting slated to begin at 7 p.m. in the boardroom at 514 Glover Street in Marietta.