When it comes to the Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE) partner, Milestone Communications, the meetings to discuss cell tower projects for public school playgrounds are intentionally held at places other than the actual public school where the cell tower will be built.
MABE's partner, Milestone Communications, only wants to hold community meetings to discuss cell tower playground projects at "neutral" locations. Their word as seen in the e-mail shown in the image below.
MABE's partner, Milestone Communications, certainly does not want to make meetings about playground cell towers accessible to actual public school parents! No, they want to make the meetings as hard to attend as possible. They want the least amount of participation.
Remember that YOUR tax dollars pay to support MABE!
Yes, your Maintenance of Effort public school dollars go to keep MABE in business. Every Board of Education in Maryland pays "dues" to be a member of MABE. MABE then partners with no bid vendors like Milestone Communications. The result? Your local school gets a cell tower compound! If you are in Prince George's County or Anne Arundel County your local school is getting 3 cell towers per playground. And, the meetings to discuss these projects will be held as far away from your neighborhood as possible so that you can not attend.
Next week a meeting will be held at a "neutral" location to discuss another public school playground cell tower project.
The meeting will not be held at the actual public school where the cell tower compound will be built.
Milestone is proposing to dress up this tower as a billboard. Billboards contribute to driver distraction and auto collisions. They therefore should not be located on roadways near schools.(see http://www.scenic.org/storage/PDFs/recent%20billboard%20safety%20research_wachtel%20summary.pdf)
ReplyDelete"Verizon Wireless (VZW) has identified a gap in wireless coverage and capacity in your community."
ReplyDeleteWhy are there so many coverage gaps around elementary and middle schools, but so few around commercial areas? It just seems so .... unexpected.
It's harder to hide from paying property taxes in commercial areas. If a cell tower can be built on government land they can hide in plain site and skip out on the taxes!
DeleteSchools are paid less and are eager to have whatever money is provided. Same with churches. These are low-hanging fruit for tower owners. Larger commercial property owners know the going lease rates and make sure that liabilities are covered too.
DeleteNot true for Anne Arundel or PG Counties. Both say it's not about the money. They say they "must" put cell towers on their school land.
DeleteWell, that's what they say after they get their free gifts from the cell tower company anyway.
Perhaps a better “neutral location” for this meeting would be the Cayman Islands. Attendance might only include Len Forkas (Milestone Communications CEO) and possibly MABE board members, with none of those pesky concerned parents. Being “offshore,” Milestone could “repay” MABE for all their support.
ReplyDelete