No Easy Solution for 911 Tower

BRADENTON – At Tuesday's meeting, Manatee County Commissioners, county staff and residents of the community surrounding Kinnan Elementary locked horns on a proposed 911 communications tower that needs to be integrated into the county's emergency communication system. After a marathon meeting, the board kicked the can down the road once more.

In late May, the board voted to stop construction of a nearly $1 million tower that is badly needed to address a communication "dead zone" hampering first responders in the University Parkway corridor. The tower's integration is to be part of a new $35 million P25 public safety communication project between Sarasota and Manatee counties.

The site for the tower, just north of Kinnan Elementary in south county, had been selected by the county via administrative procedure, with no public notice. Most residents didn't even find out it was being built until construction had begun and opposition quickly grew.

At the May meeting, commissioners expressed a desire to see the county engage in public meetings with the surrounding community but did not take a vote to build consensus to do so. Commissioners, particularly Vanessa Baugh and Betsy Benac, laid into county staff on Tuesday for not doing more to involve the public despite such directives.

Paul Alexander, Manatee County's director of information technology services, defended the county's actions, insisting that all procedures had been followed to a tee and that such towers do not require such meetings. Commissioners, however, accused staff of using something of a loophole in interpreting the matter of locating the site differently than would be done for something like a cell tower.

The location at 7510 Prospect Road is on property purchased by the county in 2001 to build a park. It is adjacent to the school and less than 90 feet from some residents' property lines, who say that the 185-foot tower does not belong in a residential area. Of the many residents who showed up wearing yellow shirts to show their unified dissent at Tuesday's meeting, most said they supported the need for the tower but believed the county had failed them by not engaging them in the process or looking hard enough at potential alternatives.

Residents said that the county should have been able to find a better site in an area laden with industrial businesses and probably would have, had staff only involved the community.

Commissioners agreed but lamented that the cost of continuing the delay, which would be compounded by hundreds of thousands of dollars in engineering costs should a new site be selected, had made the situation even more problematic.

The nearby SRQ airport complicates the matter further, restricting the number of locations in the area that can allow for the 185-foot height. Alexander noted that every bit of height that is lost will reduce the system's effectiveness and that even 10 feet could have a significant impact. Alexander said that deputies and firefighters who go into concrete buildings in south Manatee County often lose radio signals completely, putting public safety at risk.

Manatee County Administrator Ed Hunzeker said that the county had exhausted all other potential sites that would allow for the necessary specifications while adequately addressing the needs of the P25 project. Hunzeker told commissioners that no matter where the site was located, surrounding residents would be opposed.

"You can pick another site," said Hunzeker, "but at the next meeting, there will be folks with orange shirts filling the chamber to say they don't want it in their neighborhood either."

One after another, residents bombarded commissioners with public comment opposing the tower site. They said it was too close to the elementary school, would be an eyesore in their neighborhood and cause their property values to drop.

Commissioners wanted to know how much money was already invested and Alexander told them that $709,000 represented "sunk costs" on the site, in terms of what's been put into it so far and what would be required to restore it to its original condition were it not used. That, along with the costs associated with prepping a new site, would easily push costs into seven figures.

Commissioners were in agreement that they would like to hear from the contractor, Motorola, while having staff look at other properties (including non-county owned parcels that might be leased) and whether multiple, smaller towers with relays on them might be used.

Alexander said that the mandate was to reach 95 percent effectiveness with the tower and wanted to know whether commissioners wanted that modified in a search for alternatives. To this, commissioners were somewhat divided.

Commissioner Priscilla Trace questioned whether 95 percent was truly necessary if a much more suitable site could be found that could get to 90 or 85 percent. Commissioner Carol Whitmore said that she was unwilling to sacrifice any amount of effectiveness where public safety was concerned.

Commissioner Stephen Jonsson said that he would like a better understanding of what difference a few percentage points would make, along with a breakdown of costs as they pertain to each, noting that if it wouldn't cost much more, they might even want to look at trying to hit 100 percent.

Alexander said he understood the board's directive and explained, "There will be a cost impact, there will be a schedule impact, and we will try to fix the problem in the University corridor."

Commissioners voted unanimously to extend the stop work order until November 1 and to continue the item and have staff come back with Motorola to present other possible items at a future meeting.