The Marshall County Commissioners were approached by John Grolich with a proposal from AT&T regarding tower rental during their regular meeting on Jan. 6.
Grolich had been approached by AT&T about their current rental of tower space on the communications tower at the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department. Currently, the company pays a rental fee of $1,800 a month for space on the tower for their cell phone antennas. The company would like to pay a lump sum of $257,600 for a 30-year lease and a 99-year easement for the tower space.
Grolich told the Commissioners that the money could be used to increase the efficiency of the county’s current high-speed connections for emergency personnel. The county contracts with 4-Way Communications for those services, and the cash would allow the erection of a tower near Tippecanoe to improve communication.
President of the Commissioners, Stan Klotz, questioned Grolich regarding the proposal from AT&T saying that he favored solving the emergency communications difficulties in the county but wondered if there would be a different method of funding since there would be a “steep discount” for AT&T by taking the lump sum as opposed to the current monthly rental.
The numbers mentioned during the meeting were the $257,600 lump sum, as opposed to the projected $540,000 under the current arrangement that, would possibly be larger with adjustments for inflation.
Commissioner Adam Faulstich also questioned the arrangement since it would only solve part of the emergency communications issues. Grolich told the board that to completely solve the 800 MHz emergency radio problems across the county would take towers of at least 400 feet. The proposed tower in Tippecanoe would be slightly under 200 feet but would alleviate the bugs locally.
Commissioner Jesse Bohannon asked Grolich if he could get the proposal from AT&T in writing for the next meeting on Jan. 20, so they would have “something on paper,” before voting.
Grolich offered to approach AT&T for the Commissioners consideration on Jan. 20.
