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County approves fairgrounds tower

JANESVILLE — After years of debate, Janesville’s east side will get a new cell phone tower by the end of the year.

The Rock County Board on Thursday approved 23-4 to enter a lease with Global Tower Partners who will construct a 100-foot monopole on the Rock County 4-H Fairgrounds on Craig Street, Janesville.

The county will get its first check for the tower on the first of the month after ground is broken, said Assistant Rock County Administrator Phil Boutwell. So, if Global Tower breaks ground in October, the company will cut a check for $23,400 to the county Nov. 1, Boutwell said.

Global Tower also will pay the county a one-time $10,000 payment. Other cell companies—the tower holds up to three—will also pay the one-time $10,000 fee.

Each year, the county will get 20 percent of the rent paid by other companies that locate on the tower.

U.S. Cellular is expected to soon join Cricket Wireless in the tower that will look like a large flagpole built in a 25-by-50-foot space in the center of the fairgrounds. The space will be fenced and landscaped.

The lease amount will increase 3.5 percent annually. The initial lease is for 10 years with five-year extensions up to 30 years, Boutwell said.

The companies are guaranteed the space for the first nine years of the lease, Boutwell said. After that, if the county relocates the fairgrounds, Global Tower Partners could be asked to bring down the tower as a condition of the sale, Boutwell said.

Assuming the tower is built in October, U.S. Cellular joins in December and a third carrier joins in 2009, Boutwell estimates the tower will earn $385,381 by 2017.

The amount of the lease is above average for tower rental in the area, Boutwell said. For example, the monthly rent for a cell tower contracted in 2003 on UW-Whitewater’s Winther Hall would be $1,623 if the rent were inflated to 2008 prices.

Monthly rent on the city of Evansville’s water tower would be $1,107.

Monthly rent for the new fairgrounds tower will be $1,950.

U.S. Cellular proposed a larger tower at the fairgrounds in May 2006, but the city of Janesville turned down the project.

The Janesville Plan Commission in November approved a U.S. Cellular proposal for a tower at Marshall Middle School, but the school board rejected the plan.

In 2002, U.S. Cellular proposed towers at Marshall and at Ace Hardware on East Milwaukee Street.