TOWN STAFF REPORT RECCOMENDATIONS
title
Discussion regarding Cell Town Coverage (Wade Carroll)
body
STAFF: Wade Carroll, Town Manager
BACKGROUND:
During the Council Meeting on September 25, 2023 Town staff gave a presentation on possible solutions to poor cell signal in the Town of Westlake. At that time Staff was instructed to work with AT&T to get pricing to the solutions that were presented by AT&T during the meeting. Since that time AT&T have been working on pricing and have come up with the total costs associated with the different projects. (see attached) Due to the lofty infrastructure and annual maintenance costs it will be necessary to find private partnerships to move forward with such a project.
Further background:
In September of 2020 Vertical Bridge presented a proposal to the Town to lease 3,125 square feet of property adjacent to the fire station to build a cell tower. Vertical Bridge is one of the contractors used by Verizon to build Verizon towers but they have commitments from AT&T and T-Mobile and Verizon for the placement of antennas on the proposed tower. It is well known that we have poor cellular coverage in portions of Westlake in several areas including Vaquero, Granada, Westlake Ranch and Quail Hollow. Vertical Bridge gave a presentation to Council in September of 2022 at which time Council approved the Town Manager to execute the lease agreement with Vertical Bridge. The lease was executed in April of 2022 and amendments were made and accepted by staff in July of 2022. Amendments were documented by letter from Troy Meyer Dated July 27, 2022. The lease agreement requires Vertical Bridge to obtain a zoning change to allow for the cell tower at the Fire Station at which time the lease will begin for a period of 9, 5 years terms for a price of $13,200 a year. Pricing increases 7.5% each year of the contract for the life of the contract. For each antenna after the second antenna the town will receive an additional $300...
Click here for full text