Thursday, December 15, 2005

Greedy Wilmington wants more from Verizon for a cell phone tower

I heard on WILM News Radio this morning that Wilmington (Delaware) has postponed renting city owned property near Foulk Rd to Verizon for a new cell phone tower because they don't think they are getting paid enough. The offer was quoted as being about $28,000 a year for 15 years, with a 3% increase a year. The council member interviewed on the radio said that would be alright for the first few years but not for later. The discussion is now postponed until January. I guess city council gets a lot of vacation around the holidays.

I don't know how comfortable I am with this council doing this business negotiation for me. On one hand, they should try to get all the revenue they can for Wilmington and this benefits me as a resident of the city. On the other hand, a cell phone tower on Foulk road would benefit my quality of life much more than any extra revenue that they could get out of Verizon. The tower would be right on my way to work and I am sure that it is close enough to my house to improve reception there anyway. I don't have a view toward the going rate for cell phone tower land leases, so I don't know if the offer is good or not, but the way the council member spoke about it was concerning.

I am looking for a print story about this, but I am unable to find one. There was nothing on WILM.com either. Please leave a comment if you have more luck finding something.

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