At long last, Grand Portage is going to have cell phone service. On November 20, the county board approved contracts with Grand Portage and New Cingular Wireless for a county owned tower to be constructed on Grand Portage tribal land.
New Cingular Wireless will pay for the construction of the tower and in exchange will pay no rent during a lease of 25 years.
Removing old WDIO tower
The WDIO TV tower in Grand Marais is coming down—but who will take it down has yet to be decided. In a now-expired contract, WDIO, which owns the tower, agreed to eventually take it down. The county owns the land it is on.
Verizon Wireless wants to put up a tower in Grand Marais because WDIO’s tower cannot support 4G cellular equipment. WDIO is no longer using the tower, but Verizon and WTIP are still using it.
WDIO Engineer Mike Hatlestad told the county board that WDIO would gladly turn the tower over to the county. He said Verizon told WDIO that they would pay to take the old tower down. Cook County Information Technology Director Danna MacKenzie concurred, saying that Verizon might be willing to take the old tower down and build a new one it would then turn over to the county, but it would insist on recouping its costs through rent abatement. The county could earn revenue by renting tower space to other businesses.
MacKenzie said that taking the old tower down would cost an estimated $30,000-40,000. It would remain in place until the new tower was built to avoid interruption in Verizon service and WTIP broadcasting.
WDIO has not been charging rent to WTIP, but WTIP has been paying for the electricity it uses, which costs $1,500 to $2,000 a month. Station Manager Deb Benedict said their tower equipment is getting old, tends to ice up, and needs to be replaced. They will need to conduct a capital campaign to raise the $100,000 they would need for new tower equipment.
Hatlestad said WDIO has a rental agreement with Verizon through 2014. They would be willing to drop the rent in exchange for Verizon agreeing to remove the old tower. County Attorney’s Office Paralegal (and licensed attorney) Jeanne Smith told the board that WDIO probably would not consider itself accountable for taking the tower down, since its contract with the county had expired.
IT Director MacKenzie will work with WDIO and Buell Consulting on behalf of Verizon on an agreement for removal of the old tower and construction of the new one.
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