Board of Ed. wants to Give Cell Vendor who is NOT Paying Property Taxes More Land at Wheaton High School #celltower

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Wheaton High School has a cell tower right next to the school building.  The image at left shows how close the cell tower is to the school building. 

The cell tower used to be a light pole on the football field, but when MCPS built a new Wheaton High School they built the new school right next to the cell tower.  The school building moved, the cell tower did not.

There are currently 3 companies using the Wheaton High School cell tower:  AT&T, Sprint Clearwire, and T-Mobile.



Sprint/Nextel wants to add six antennas and nine remote radio heads (RRH) at 85' on the 97'5" monopole, and construct a 12' x 20' compound on Wheaton High School property to support the new antennas and radio heads.  

Each of the cell tower companies are required by Maryland law to pay property taxes on their cell tower locations.  However, a check of Montgomery County Property Tax records shows that two of the companies using the Wheaton High School cell tower are not keeping up with their annual property tax payments. 

One of the companies not current in paying Maryland Property Taxes is Sprint Clearwire.

Nonetheless, the Montgomery County Board of Education has asked the Montgomery County Tower Committee to approve these new antennas, new radio heads and new 12' x 20' base for a company that is in arrears on paying their property taxes.

The Montgomery County Tower Committee will approve (they always do) the addition of these new antennas, radio heads and 12' x 20' base compound at their November 7, 2018, meeting. 

Below are the Montgomery County Property Tax bills for Sprint Clearwire and AT&T at the Wheaton High School cell tower.