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Friday, August 24, 2012

Doug Duncan: It's a "no brainer" - Cell Towers on School Playgrounds.

Former Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan is now apparently in the business of hawking cell towers for a company called Milestone Communications.  
And, Mr. Duncan isn't just recommending cell towers, he's going one step further and recommending that they be placed on public school playgrounds.  He says it's a "no brainer" according to the Milestone write up shown below. 

Milestone Communications has "partnered" with the Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE).  MABE is a private members only club that the MCPS Board of Education joins every year.  Annual dues to our BOE?  $48,062 in FY 2012.

By law, our local Board of Education is to make decisions about which vendors to do business with through a public bidding process.  The MABE "partnership" appears to be trying to circumvent the public process by "partnering" with vendors with out a public vetting.  MABE is a private club and, as such, they don't have any public accountability for their decision making.  We don't know how they decided to "partner" with this company, and we don't know how much money, if any, they are receiving for this partnership.  

Absent, of course, is any public process as to whether parents in Maryland actually want cell towers/telecommunications transmission compounds on public school playgrounds.  
Why is MABE subverting the public process?

Dropping the $48,062 in dues to this BOE club is a no brainer. 
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MABE Partners with MilestoneThe Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE) is partnering with Milestone to share exciting revenue earning opportunities with Maryland's School Districts.
Milestone's wireless tower development program earns school boards recurring revenue streams. Last year, the program earned Fairfax County Public Schools over a $1 million.
"Using school assets to create revenue is a no brainer," said Doug Duncan, former County Executive for Montgomery County.
Milestone has been partnering with school districts for over ten years. It has developed over 25 stealth wireless towers.
To read more about the partnership and other Milestone news, download our October newsletter.

5 comments:

  1. hmm. sounds more like an exciting new revenue stream for candidate Doug Duncan! We hear he is running for County Executive.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Duncan and MABE aren’t “creating” revenue, they’re stealing it(and a lot more) from us! As this Blog has previously demonstrated, cell towers at/near schools, close to residential properties, cause nearby home/property values/assessments to decline. Lower assessments mean less tax revenue going into County coffers and fewer resources for our schools. Declines in home values lead to erosions in neighborhoods and have negative impacts upon their neighborhood schools.

    ReplyDelete
  3. good point. Although, to be fair, declining home values mean you will move out, and the new urbanistas can move in. And, once the new commercial/residential zone is in place, good-bye surbubanites! We don't want you. We are urbanizing. In the place of your not-so-green footprint, with those nasty trees and lawns, we can put in a 10-story mixed use building. so smart growth! or is it smarter growth? I can never tell. It's all according to the plan of the Planning Board and those county council members for whom you voted. And, those new urbanistas won't need schools because according to the county council and the Planning Board (members appointed by the county council), they don't have children!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Shame on Doug Duncan! Shame on the Boardmembers under whose watch the contracts are signed and towers go up, too! Parents Coalition reported how, time and time again, cell phone carriers have aggressively worked to site their cell towers next to those MoCo schools that serve the County’s most disenfranchised/ vulnerable populations (what used to be called the red-zone schools). And in contrast, where carriers pursued sites at more affluent, better performing (a.k.a. former green zone) schools the carriers backed down after neighbors banned together and lawyered up. Hmmm: 1) aggressive behavior + 2) imbalance of power + 3) repeated over time -- Doesn’t MCPS have a zero-tolerance policy for bullying? It’s time for some disciplinary action.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Any relation to Milestone Construction????

    George Leventhal Here's the message councilmembers received yesterday from Department of General Services Director David Dise:

    "You may have heard that Milestone Construction, the general contractor for the Olney Library is going out of business. Milestone is also constructing the new Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad facility under a contract with the Wheaton VFRD. The Olney Library project is about 60% complete, while the Wheaton project is further along at about 75%.

    "Following pressure from DGS staff regarding its declining performance and complaints from subcontractors about non-payment, Milestone informed DGS staff last week that it will be ceasing operation at the end of 2013. Staff met with Milestone and its surety last Thursday and will meet again tomorrow, Tuesday, July 2nd, in preparation of calling the performance bond on the Olney Library contract. Staff has discussed this with the Wheaton VFRD but we have not heard definitively what steps they intend to take on that contract.

    "A performance bond for the full contract amount is required on all County contracts for construction to ensure that in the event of the contractor’s default all work is completed at no additional cost to the County. When the performance bond is called the surety becomes responsible for completing the work. Determining the surety’s plan of action and the resulting impact on project schedule is the subject of this week’s meeting. Delay in completing the project is unavoidable. We will know more this week.

    "I will keep you updated on the progress.

    David
    David Dise

    Director, Department of General Services
    Montgomery County, MD
    240-777-6191
    david.dise@montgomerycountymd.gov"

    ReplyDelete

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