Gardner Redevelopment Authority approves cell tower negotiations

By Owen Boss

GARDNER— The Gardner Redevelopment Authority passed a motion to pursue negotiations toward selling the current leases of local cell phone towers to the Unison company for 25 years. The agreement would pass the leases to the site management company for a proposed $498,717. Robert Hubbard, the city’s director of planning and development, said that although the deal would benefit both the site management company, and the city of Gardner, negotiations of the contract are still in the preliminary stages. According to Mr. Hubbard, the way that the contract is currently written, the Unison company would agree to take over the current lease on the cell phone tower, and if there is any additional revenue over and above what it is currently being produced to the redevelopment fund, the additional money will go directly to the redevelopment authority rather than the company purchasing the lease. “The company is willing to sign an agreement that would only buy them the income flow that sits at the tower now,” said Mr. Hubbard. “For example, one of our current leases runs out next year, if we renegotiate the lease to get more money, let’s just say $100 a month, under this agreement, that $100 would come to us rather than to the company, and we would get the entire amount not just a percentage of the money.” The agreement had several members of the council questioning why the company would agree to a nonpermanent contract that would only guarantee them the current income on the property, and would provide them no ownership of the tower. “You have to ask yourself why they would want to do that,” said Mr. Hubbard, “I don’t know if I can answer that question to any satisfaction, and I don’t care why they want to do it, as long as we confirm that this is what it says in the document.” According to Mr. Hubbard, Mark Goldstein, president of the Community Development Center is working to ensure that the parameters of the contract are clearly written and adhere to the desires of the Redevelopment Authority. Mr. Goldstein is also curious why a company would agree to such a contract. “I don’t understand why a company would want to do this,” said Mr. Goldstein, “but the GRA stands to receive a large sum of money that they can then invest, and as long as the company is offering, the GRA certainly has to take a look at it.” City Councilor Ron Cormier said that he thought the outline of the contract seemed fair, and added that the sometimes rapid changes in technology is something that could alter the future of the towers. “I think that the proposal makes sense,” said Mr. Cormier. “Technology is changing as we sit here, over the next 15 years there could be big changes in the way the towers are used.” Mr. Cormier said passing the lease off to an outside company takes future decisions for the towers out of the redevelopment authority’s hands, and ensures that they will continue profiting from the tower regardless of the path future technology takes. Before the lease of the tower can be sold to the company, there are preparations still to be made by the redevelopment authority including hiring a surveyor to map the land, said Mr. Hubbard. Members of the redevelopment authority strongly recommended that efforts be made to do so regardless of whether or not an agreement with Unison is reached. oboss@thegardnernews.com

Appeared on Page 1 on 4/23/2008 (Vol. 206 No. 97)