Travis County Commssioners Court
January 7, 2003
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Item 2
2. Approve antenna lease agreement with scott a. Davis for the use of a parcel of land as a radio antenna tower site for the 9-1-1 rdmt regional trunked radio project.
>> I would like to just give you the highlights of this. I'm hopeful that this is the final, this is the last of -- of the towers that need to be built. That I will be bringing before you as far as Travis County is concerned. Of course this has been about a three and a half or four-year project. But this fulfills the commitment of uniform coverage throughout Travis County by placing this particular tower where it is. And most of all, it benefits Travis County because it is an area of Travis County that we need improvement as far as coverage. And that's the -- that's the area of -- of hamilton pool, the hamilton pool preserve, as well as other areas around that. And so I have -- I have just listed reasons why this antenna tower site is needed. Uniform coverage, which this one will do, it will fulfill the entire coverage area that's needed in Travis County, officer safety, and the reason why I say officer safety is if you go into an area and your radio doesn't work, then that creates a problem and a safety concern for the officer. And it isn't just the officer, when we are talking about hamilton pool, you are talking about rescue efforts, you are talking about drownings, you are talking about situations where firefighters as well as paramedics are in those areas. So it hits all three. And then, of course, most importantly, too, is our residents. Those people that are now living in those areas, of course we all know Travis County is growing leaps and bounds, people are moving in all of these areas now. So the -- so the rate of instances are coming up. The rate of problems are now being created because you have more people, more population. We also want to look at the fact that there are some roadways that are in this area that -- that are also a cause for problems and accidents. And so it is important that we finish this out and it is important that we go with a particular site. We did look at other areas for other potential sites. We found this one to be the best one. I have been working with the coalition, this had already been started on when I got here. I also wanted to commend gordon bowman who has been working with me since I have been here on this particular site. And you talk about somebody that looks at every t and every i, I mean, this guy is something else when it comes to looking at things. I just want to say on behalf of gordon, so gordon just sit there and take it. I have been working with gordon bowman since 1985 when we first drafted the interlocal between Austin and Travis County regarding greater communication, and I have never worked with a better professional, a man with integrity, a man that does it the right way. Will make sure that you do it the right way. In fact even with this one, as well as the last tower, there are things that even crop up after you do something. If you sees it needs to be corrected he's going to corrected. So [inaudible] for instance, one that he's looking into, liens, he's looking into it deeper to make sure that he completely protects Travis County. But I may not get the opportunity gordon this is going to be his last council or his last court date with us, at least with me, with rdmt, but I want to tell him publicly that I appreciate you, I appreciate everything that you have done for rdmt, for the coalition, for the county, and it's just been a joy working with you, I hope to continue to work with you as you go and pursue other avenues. But thank you very, very much, gordon. I didn't mean to do that, but I felt like I needed to do it.
>> how many going away parties have we had for gordon? [ laughter ]
>> I don't know.
>> this will be the second.
>> he will be missed. Getting back to the tower location, it fits the need that we need, it's a filler site, it's one that completes the coverage and I would encourage that you approve this so that we can go ahead and begin our testing, that's the other thing about this radio project. We want to get it finished. So we can include this and hopefully start testing in February or March. Of course as you know everything begins popping in radio a little bit earlier than the rest of the projects because we are going to be doing testing of equipment and of course hopefully by this summer we are bringing some of our folks on.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> this is the same scott Davis that is the former justice of the peace, precinct 3?
>> yes, sir.
>> and what other sites did we look at?
>> we did several things, actually I didn't, but the coalition did. That is first of all, they looked at going in with lcra because they have a tower near here. Near this location that's actually in Travis County. But due to the cost that it would have taken to go on that tower and also the improvements that they wanted, it was not to our benefit to do that financially. They also checked with some homeowners as far as actually buying properties, that's one of the things that you want to do with towers is buy rather than lease, but again it became a price issue to where the amount of money this they wanted per acre was not feasible for us to do that. We also looked at a lease that the sheriff's office uses for their gun lease. That created a problem as far as remediation and so we couldn't use that, either. So -- so this became the site that -- that they felt was the best that we could use at this particular time.
>> there was no possibility of long term -- I guess in the future this lease was within our future purchase to buy --
>> that's one of the things that gordon requires in the lease, first refusal, if it looks like we are the owner -- if the owner issues to sell, we will have the first shot at it. The other thing that protects us, too, is the term of the lease. 30 year lease, 15 with extensions, but that is very important that you -- when you get into a lease, you try if you can at some point to purchase the property. If it becomes available.
>> I guess as far as all of the location that's we looked at again, this was the most feasible. I know lcra has some stuff it didn't seem to pan out. A whole bunch of other stuff here, both of all --
>> this was the best one.
>> I appreciate the due diligence and thanks, gordon.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes unanimously.
>> thanks, dan.
>> thank you very much.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM