The Tower, the Sequel to the Sequel to the Sequel

Yes people, the long dormant TOWER issue is back again! But THIS time it is being pushed as a revenue generator behind the fire station. The "official" story line goes something like this; Cell companies will pay to lease space on a 160' tower in the pristine center of town, OH, AND if our petulant police chief gets his way (he was thwarted the first two tries) he can get his communications equipment up there as well. This time there is no mention of who will pay the $260,000 cost of building the tower, or the equipment to be housed there. But you know who will ultimately be on the hook.... YOU GOT IT! THE TAXPAYERS! This is the regurgitation of the very same debunked arguments from two and five years ago. Five years ago, the police dept. did not put a warrant article forward for the tower, but Billy Baldwin was circulating at town meeting a prospectus for the project which would have been billed as a public safety issue, and an emergency need later in the year. It called for a $260,000 tower, and $510,000 of equipment to go along with it. And NONE of this would have addressed the communications issue of the PD which was low power transmission outages for the shoulder held radios. Experts stated at the time that vehicle repeaters were the most cost effective means of solving this, but Phil would have none of it. You see, with vehicle repeaters the shoulder radios only needed to transmit to the car. The higher power radio in the car, would then connect with the PD to facilitate communications. Phil admitted the cars have no blackout problems. These are used by police depts. across the country and chiefs in those communities swear by them. WE COULD HAVE INSTALLED VEHICLE REPEATERS IN EVERY CAR FOR A TOTAL OF $27,465.00! Not the $770,000 it would take to erect Phils phallic symbol in the center of town. By the way, no one has ever ID'ed or found the communications equipment that the chief got through Plaistows grant 6 years ago, and was certified to have been installed on a tower in Atkinson when in reality it was stored in a closet somewhere. So many question, so much wasted taxpayer dollars, all to feed one man's fragile ego, When will it all stop?