The money just wasn’t right.

On Wednesday night, the South Whidbey Parks and Recreation board of commissioners decided $1,000 a month too little to allow a cellular telephone company to build a transmission tower in a wooded section of the South Whidbey Community Park.

The board turned down a request from T-Mobile, formerly known as VoiceStream Wireless, to erect a cell tower in the park after considering the idea for more than a month. The tower, which was to have measured up to 150 feet in height, was to be sited within 40 acres of woods owned by the parks district. T-Mobile had offered the district $12,000 a year as a rental fee for approximately 500 square feet of ground space for the tower and equipment.

That wasn’t enough for four of the five commissioners, who each expressed the belief that the mission of the district is to provide recreational space, not good cell phone service.

“The money would be nice,” said commissioner Paul Arand. “But our mission is to provide the community with parks to enjoy, not to enhance cell service. It is a controversial issue and it would split the community.”

Commissioner Tara Barlean agreed with Arand.

“I have teetered both ways,” she said. “We could sure use the money to help support programs that are not paying for themselves. But our mission is to provide parks not more cell service.

Barlean also questioned the length of the 20-year rental contract T-Mobile wanted to sign with the district. She said the period was too long, especially if having the tower in the park proved to be undesirable.

“It’s not something we could change easily, if it wasn’t working out,” she said.

Commissioner Carl Westling was the only member of the board to motion to accept T-Mobile’s proposal. But even he wanted more out of the company. Rejecting arguments made by a few South Whidbey citizens at previous meetings over the alleged negative health effects associated with cell tower transmissions, Westling said the company needs to pay more if it wants a presence in the park.

“I would accept T-Mobile’s proposal if they would pay us $5,000 a month with a 25 percent increase every five years,” he said.

Board chairman Curt Gordon voted against the proposal on a more philosophical basis. He said he did not want the trails and wilderness in the park’s woods disturbed by a cell tower.

“Carl and I put in the trails years ago,” he said. “I love to run up there. The trails are nature in the purest form.”

But, Gordon said he is not opposed to public-private partnerships in the park when they are appropriate.

The tower issue set off a storm of controversy at the district’s Dec. 3 meeting. About a dozen people spoke out against the tower at the meeting, saying radio waves emitted by the tower were damaging to human health. On Wednesday, board commissioners agreed medical information about radio frequency radiation was inconclusive, but should not be entirely dismissed.

But almost every other issue surrounding the tower proposal carried more weight than did the health question. Commissioner Jim Porter said a tower could limit how the park grows in the future.

“I don’t want to tie the hands of future parks commissioners,” he said.

Langley residents Lynn and Janice Dakin, who attended the meeting, were delighted with the board’s decision.

“The health issues are a real concern, and the proposed location was within a several hundred yards of playground equipment,” Janice Dakin said.

The Dakins own 16 acres of land adjacent to the park.