DEL.ICIO.USUpdated: 8:27 p.m. January 22, 2009
Cell towers a boon for Cobb schools
Other area districts haven’t bought into rental plans
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, January 22, 2009
The cellphone tower at Allatoona High School will stand among the stadium lights near the football field. The Acworth school’s buccaneer logo will appear on a square box atop the 150-foot tower.
Bob Andres / bandres@ajc.com
Cellphone towers earn schools an immediate $150,000.
Not all the towers on 17 Cobb campuses are as decorative, but the financial incentives for renting space to cellphone companies outweigh the aesthetics at some schools.
Each tower yields an immediate $150,000, with 60 percent going to the school where the tower is built, said Dennis Campbell, planning director for Cobb schools. The remainder of the money goes into a fund for schools without towers that can be drawn from as needed.
And it gets better. The contracts with cellphone companies are 15-year deals, or three five-year contracts. Over the length of a lease, a school with a tower earns $270,000, or $90,000 every five years.
Most of the towers on Cobb campuses are owned by T-Mobile, but other cellphone providers can pay to add their antennas. Additional antennas can bring in at least $800 a month, Campbell said.
Recently, towers have been erected at North Cobb and Walton high schools, Floyd Middle School and Cheatham Hill Elementary School. This week, the Osborne High School community gave a thumbs-up to a tower.
“I’m like a kid with a Christmas gift list,” said Osborne principal Steven Miletto. “I’ve spent the money over and over.”
Miletto plans to purchase additional interactive whiteboards for the school and replace make-shift dry erase boards in classrooms.
Not all metro area school districts are keen on cellphone towers.
Patricia Pope with DeKalb schools said the district has had inquiries, but isn’t interested. Similarly, Gwinnett schools haven’t been open to the idea. Most concerns have been related to possible health risks posed by the towers.
The American Cancer Society Web site explains that cellphone towers are unlikely to cause cancer. The towers are well under Federal Communication Commission guidelines for the amount of radio waves that can be emitted. No research has focused on the long-term effects of being near towers.
Some Cobb school communities have resisted the towers. School officials hold meetings for parents and nearby residents before approving cellphone tower agreements.
In 1999, parents protested a tower that was ultimately built at Tritt Elementary in east Cobb, fearing it posed a safety hazard.
Last summer, parents at Addison Elementary in Marietta successfully blocked plans to build a tower.
“The footprint of where they were going to locate it was right in the middle of the children’s play area,” said Cheryl Mayerik, a parent at the school. “There was no way that where they were looking to put it was going to be attractive.”
Ylander Curry, who lives across the street from Osborne, worried the tower may affect her property value. Her nephew lives with her and attends the school.
“If it helps pull in money, it will definitely help the kids,” Curry said.
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