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Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Board of Education Inventory of Available School Sites
The October 12, 2010, Board of Education meeting discussed MCPS enrollment and the upcoming classroom needs of MCPS.
Board member Laura Berthiaume asked for the list of available school sites. The list of MCPS Real Estate Inventoryis on the MCPS website and shows available school sites for expansion of current MCPS facilities. [6/20/12 MCPS has removed this document from their website. If you want to see the list of MCPS Real Estate holdings you will have to use our copy of the list at this link.]
What the Board of Education didn't discuss, and never has discussed, is how Superintendent Weast has taken at least one surplus school site and turned it into a cell phone tower compound. See image of cell towers next to this text. That is the Woodwards Road Elementary School site. That site is vacant land held in trust for the use of public school children. But Superintendent Weast has put a cell phone tower compound on the land instead of a school.
If that school site is now needed for a school, who is going to kick the cell towers off the property?
Looking at the picture of this cell tower site I see one monopole with at least 3 co-locations affixed to it. But when I look on the TFCG site, I don't even show this location on their list of existing cell phone tower sites. There are two applications that were denied for two seperate carriers in 2006 for a site called Emory Grove on Woodfield Rd, could be close enough.(?) If in fact this does have at least 4 co-location carriers, MCPS is raking in at least 100K a year. And since there is no school or "cluster" this site belongs to, MCPS doesn't have to share 2/3 of the revenue like they do with other host schools. With this kind of revenue stream, there is no way they are kicking this cell tower off the property!
Yes, and where exactly is that revenue stream going? Any clues?
Much better to have children in classroom trailers than in brick and mortar buildings, right?
Just imagine, this site and the other vacant school sites could house children in classrooms as intended by State law - or - these sites can be commercialized by the Superintendent for a slush fund. Which is more fun?
It’s a sweetheart deal for MCPS and for the wireless carriers, too! Not just there, but at the cell sites on MCPS properties throughout the County the carriers are required by Maryland Code to pay real property taxes on the land rented for the cell site compounds. The County doesn’t bother to collect those property taxes. Thus, MCPS and the wireless corporations win; we loose!
The October 12, 2010, Board of Education meeting discussed MCPS enrollment and the upcoming classroom needs of MCPS. 
Looking at the picture of this cell tower site I see one monopole with at least 3 co-locations affixed to it. But when I look on the TFCG site, I don't even show this location on their list of existing cell phone tower sites. There are two applications that were denied for two seperate carriers in 2006 for a site called Emory Grove on Woodfield Rd, could be close enough.(?)
ReplyDeleteIf in fact this does have at least 4 co-location carriers, MCPS is raking in at least 100K a year. And since there is no school or "cluster" this site belongs to, MCPS doesn't have to share 2/3 of the revenue like they do with other host schools.
With this kind of revenue stream, there is no way they are kicking this cell tower off the property!
Yes, and where exactly is that revenue stream going? Any clues?
ReplyDeleteMuch better to have children in classroom trailers than in brick and mortar buildings, right?
Just imagine, this site and the other vacant school sites could house children in classrooms as intended by State law - or - these sites can be commercialized by the Superintendent for a slush fund. Which is more fun?
It’s a sweetheart deal for MCPS and for the wireless carriers, too! Not just there, but at the cell sites on MCPS properties throughout the County the carriers are required by Maryland Code to pay real property taxes on the land rented for the cell site compounds. The County doesn’t bother to collect those property taxes. Thus, MCPS and the wireless corporations win; we loose!
ReplyDelete