Supervisors OK Cell Tower Deal
Henry Bailey Jr., The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
A communications tower that officials said will enhance service in eastern DeSoto County has won approval from supervisors.
The board this week approved a 50-year lease at $10 a year with Tower Ventures of Memphis that will place a 173-foot tower on a 53-by-85-foot county-owned parcel at 13705 Center Hill Road. A separate agreement governs communications equipment at the site.
It allows the county to put transmission systems on the tower for emergency communications, for expansion of our Emergency Management system, said County Atty. Tony Nowak.
Meanwhile, the company gets a cell tower and can sell space to phone companies and other businesses. Cell and broadband expansion is another county priority.
We’ll lease space to C Spire, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and the others, Lou Katzerman, site acquisition contractor with Tower Ventures of Memphis, said Tuesday. We’re real excited about it.
He expects tower construction during the first quarter of 2013.
It’s hard to get some of those radio systems out there it’s kind of a no man’s land, said Supervisor Jessie Medlin of Olive Branch, president of the five-member governing panel.
In other matters, supervisors:
Approved an application by developer Sam Ware to revise the Lake Forest Commercial subdivision. The change splits one 4.98-acre lot into two — one of 3.86 acres and the other 1.12 acres, where a 9,100-square-foot Dollar General Store is planned. The site is on the north side of Goodman Road and west of Poplar Corner Road in Walls.
The issue had been tabled from the supervisors’ Sept. 24 meeting at the request of Supervisor Bill Russell of Walls, who wanted to contact members of the adjacent Minor Memorial United Methodist Church to see if there were any concerns. This week he said he had contacted the church and there were no objections.
The church appreciates you working with them, Russell told Ware and his engineer, Ben Smith.
Got assurances that the overgrowth at a bank-owned site, 10705 N. Cockrum Road in Hernando, would be taken care of.
Monroe, La.-based Mike Jedyak of Wells Fargo’s property preservation department assured supervisors the weeds would be cut. The supervisors were surprised to see someone step up. The board gave the bank until next Wednesday.
Apparently the front side was being cut, but we didn’t realize the rear of the property wasn’t, Jedyak said.
Approved on a consent agenda an agreement to purchase surplus body armor from the city of Leland and the counties of Tate, Tippah and Itawamba.
This allows us to help out some areas that need equipment but don’t have a lot of resources, said Sheriff Bill Rasco.
October 3, 2012
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