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Belgrade To Get New Cell Tower

June 11, 2010 - BELGRADE -- Residents hope to improve cell phone reception with a new tower.

They voted 703 to 243 on Tuesday to allow selectmen to negotiate a lease with a Florida company to build a tower on town-owned property next to Pine Grove Cemetery.

The cemetery is located on the south side of Route 135.

Town Manager Dennis Keschl said Florida Tower Partners LLC asked for approval to lease a plot of land 100 feet by 100 feet with access rights.

"I took that to the selectmen," Keschl said Wednesday. "They could have made a decision. But because it was near the cemetery, they decided to ask residents about entertaining a lease."

Keschl -- a Republican candidate for House District 83 -- said Florida Tower Partners' initial proposal was for up to 10 contract periods, each lasting five years, with renewals for up to 50 years.

He said the first year of the first contract period was for $800 a month, for a total of $9,600 a year.

Each year after that, the annual rent would increase 3 percent.

"So that the fifth year of the first contract period would be for $10,805," he said. "If 10 contract periods were negotiated in the agreement, the total estimate for income to the town, using the proposal agreement, would be $918,588."

He said the proceeds would be earmarked for the town's General Fund to offset property taxes.

"I haven't heard anyone complain about this," he said. "There's other towers in town. I don't think it's a bad way to have an income source."

He said the town did a survey to see what other Maine communities are being paid to lease their land for cell towers.

He said the range is between $12,000 and $21,000 per year.

"We probably will be more consistent with what other towns are getting," he said. "Now that the town has approved (the proposal), I'll contact (Florida Towers Partners) and entertain negotiating a lease."

Keschl said residents were asked at Town Meeting in March to turn over that land to the Cemetery Committee. He said it would have been used to expand Pine Grove Cemetery, but residents voted down the proposal.

by Mechele Cooper, Morning Sentinel, June 11, 2010

Lakes:
Regions: Belgrade


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