Washtenaw County's plan for radio tower will desecrate pristine land near Chelsea

Even more frustrating is the ignored opportunity to use an already existing 1,000-foot radio/TV tower just a few miles away and save the substantial cost of building a new tower, and preserve some of the county’s most scenic areas.

The county is planning to spend from $750,000 to $1,000,000 of the taxpayers’ money as part of the countywide effort passed in a May 2006 millage proposal to rebuild the emergency radio system. The proposed tower is one of seven structures to be utilized in Washtenaw County.

The April 2009 meeting of the Lyndon Township Planning Commission was, for many residents, the first notice of the county’s intention to build this huge blight on their backyard skies. By then however, the 800 MHz Radio Consortium had cemented their plan to build the 400-foot tower (3 times the height of a typical water tower) on the old Chelsea landfill, regardless of public outcry.

The proposal passed the township planning process even though there were many site concerns. For example, setbacks were not what are required by anyone building in the township. The tower site was finally located such that if it falls, it will only barely fall short of adjoining houses, and could fall across the busy Werkner Road.

Though some initial efforts were made to co-locate on the nearby 1,000-foot WPXD tower, which was the only other suitable location in this corner of the county, it was reported that the opportunity was lost due to inability to reach an agreement on a lease. Subsequent inquiry to the WPXD tower owners by concerned residents found that the county had not really made any good-faith attempt to reach agreement on any lease that would involve payment of rent. The managers of this tower were more than willing to have the county co-locate at a cost much lower than the cost of building and maintaining their own tower.

Cost was not the issue over which this effort failed. In fact, the cost was negotiated down to a lump sum of between $200,000 and $300,000 - hundreds of thousands of dollars less than even the most conservative estimates of the new tower construction. According to a representative of the county project, the lease terms presented by the tower managers contained provisions that were unacceptable to the county. But the county admits that it never responded to the "boiler-plate" lease that was presented, and never asked to have any of the terms changed, even though the tower owners were very amenable to changing any language of concern to the county. Instead, the oversight committee in charge of the project voted unanimously on Oct. 15 to proceed with the building of the new tower.

Unfortunately this complicated project has lost sight of accomplishing the goals with minimal cost and intrusion. At a meeting in the Lyndon Township Hall on Nov. 10, project representatives defended their actions, but given the very lengthy periods when negotiations stalled and resources were diverted to the new tower planning and approval process, concerned residents were left unconvinced that there ever was strong motivation to make the co-location work.

A lot of progress had been made in recent months, but somehow, the push to get a co-location agreement failed. The reason? In the end, it’s a lot easier to just write a big check to erect a new tower with none of the complications that come with having to cooperate with others. Working out the messy details, the way private businesses do who lack the freedom that “other people’s money” gives to government, is difficult and takes hard work and perseverance. Were it not for the open checkbook at their disposal, the people in charge of this project would have found a way to make it work. But they didn’t have to.

The public really has no way of knowing the huge blight to their evening skies that is about to be irrevocably and unnecessarily built. In the end, what bothers me most of all is the arrogant waste of money pledged by the taxpayers of this county for public safety. You can bet they’ll be back asking for more later, when today’s technology becomes obsolete and all of our fire, police and safety personnel need new communication equipment. Wouldn’t it be nice to have an extra few hundred thousand dollars in reserve for that day? This could have been a win-win for everyone. Instead, it’s become a short-sighted solution that will result in a long term desecration of this county's natural preservation land, and an erosion of faith in the public trust. In the end it will come back to haunt all country residents when money is needed that was unnecessarily squandered in this round.

Please join me in letting your county representatives know your displeasure in their decision to ruin the night skies in northern Chelsea and waste taxpayer money. Elizabeth A. Widmayer Chelsea