THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

COLWOOD, B.C. -- For two years, residents this Victoria suburb have been plagued by garage doors that open without warning, sprinklers that come on at will and radios that play several stations at once.

Chris Burke says his electronically controlled bed has even developed a nasty habit of folding up while he and his wife are asleep.

"The legs start to come up and the head starts to come up," Burke said. "That's pretty scary when you are in the middle of a sleep."

The Canadian government has appointed a retired University of Victoria professor to look into the odd electric phenomena that began after a pair of 200-foot transmission towers went up about 50 feet from some houses.

Residents said videocassette recorders and television sets went on spontaneously and one said a brass bed grew warm from the radio waves.

Former public administration professor Rod Dobell will review how Industry Canada policy was followed in approving construction of the broadcast towers on Triangle Mountain without public meetings or consultation with the municipality.

Melanie Roberts, an Industry Canada spokeswoman, said the agency has a mandate to expand cellular phone and broadcast coverage across the country but often runs into opposition.

"People usually don't want towers in their back yard, but they want access to services," she said. "We are the party trying to ensure that both of these needs gets addressed."

There has been a transmission tower on the mountain since the 1960s, long before significant residential development in the area or the incorporation of Colwood, but the original is now gone.

The new towers are used to broadcast three Victoria FM radio stations and are also supposed to improve cellular telephone communication, but Burke says cell phone signals are still often poor in the area.

He now unplugs his electric bed, and he and his wife have given up listening to the radio.

"While you are listening to one station, you are getting overrun by another. It's just not fun any more," he said. "It's very frustrating."

Burke said a neighbor's sprinkler system won't come on when it's supposed to but will when it isn't.

Town Council member Ernie Robertson, chairman of Colwood's Transmission Towers Citizens Committee, said the council has received dozens of complaints.

He said he is pleased that Canadian Industry Minister Alan Rock will review policy issues surrounding the towers while Dobell is investigating the matter.

"(Ottawa) has a consultation process," Robertson said. "They didn't follow it."

Source: www.seattlepi.com