American Tower pays school board $900,000 cash
In a deal that seems more appropriate when dealing with Tony Montana than a school board, American Tower entered into a perpetual easement agreement with Stevenson High School in Livonia, Mich. The company will give the school a one-time payment of $900,000 for use of a cell tower on the school’s property. That amount is in cash, which is atypical of these sorts of deals, which are usually paid in yearly installments for a determined number of years.
School Board Trustee Mark Johnson called the sum “a huge revenue stream,” even emphasizing the value of the deal by adding that if technology changes and the company no longer uses the tower, the school district gets to keep the entire sum.
Last year the school decided that rather than make budget cuts, it would sell excess property or do something similar in order to generate revenue, which led to the tower deal. Previously, the tower was leased for $60,000 per year. It would take the school district 15 years to generate a comparable amount of revenue under the previous deal. A third party was brought in to do an appraisal, which found the new deal was a fair price for the cell tower. Additionally, the school district will be able to utilize the tower for its own purposes as well, such as for football field lighting.
Normally RCR Wireless News wouldn’t deem this story big enough to report to this extent, but the fact that the deal was paid for in cash, upfront, agreed to unanimously by the school board and there was little to no resistance from the community concerning the cell tower makes it a rarity in the ongoing struggle in this country between community concerns over radio frequency exposure and the push for more towers and connectivity.
Tower inspections
On this week’s edition of the Cell Tower News video show, host Joey Jackson talks tower inspections with Dale Shumaker, VP of site design and implementation at Enertech Resources.
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Regional/local tower news
- Verizon sues Belchertown, Mass., for denying cell phone tower permit.
- Stockbridge, Mass., clears Verizon cell tower to plug signal gaps.
- Verizon reps withdraw application to build Iowa City, Iowa-based cell tower after community backlash.
- DeKalb, Ill., council to read cell tower ordinance proposal to co-locate Verizon equipment on AT&T tower.
- New cell tower in Green Valley, Ariz., is part art, part functional.
- Connecticut approves contested Bethel cell tower.
- Missing Colorado City, Texas, woman’s phone connected to cell tower in Midland, Texas.
- City set to approve 120-foot cell phone tower in Lawrence, Kan.
- Council sides with neighbors in fight over cell tower in Knoxville, Tenn.
- Cell tower flap may be coming to end in Sweetwater, Tenn.
- Amherst, Va., school officials send mixed signals as cell tower vote nears.
- Cellphone tower decision appealed in Blue Hill, Maine
