Radio Tower NotesMaster Plan completed in 1999, City Council accepted Master plan and approved
going forward with Alternate 2 of the plan. (Resolution 4518, 11/01/99)
Environmental Assessment was completed and given a FONSI by the FAA with
environmental approval for six development items at the Airport.
From this an Airport Layout Plan was developed, reviewed and approved by the
FAA in 2003.
The Kalispell City Airport was placed on the NIPAS list for funding by the FAA-,
Airport ImprovementProgram.
One of the prerequisites for funding by the FAA was the mitigation of the KGEZ
radio towers. Mitigation meant, reduction in height, removal completely, or
relocation. The means by which this was to be accomplished was up to the City of
Kalispell.
Purchase of the radio station became entangled in demands for outrageous pricing
that the City of Kalispell could not touch. The last asking price was $4 Million.
This is for a radio station with an approximate appraised value of $650,000.
It was determined that the best course of action would be to relocate the current
radio towers to a location outside of protected airspace. A search ensued to find a
new location for the towers. With advice from Hatfield & Dawson, Broadcast
Engineer from Seattle, WA. I have looked at several locations in the Valley located
in the range identified by Hatfield & Dawson, and have settled on a location south
of Kalispell, outside protected airspace. The engineers have approved the location
as an excellent site to build the replacement towers.
The City has acquired an option on the 20 acre tract of land shown in the drawings
you have before you. The radio towers will be physically located on the 20 acre
tract of land. The underground radials would be buried in the arcs shown around
the bases of the two towers. Two of the adjacent landowners have given tentative
approval to the underground radials. The final documents need to be negotiated
with the adjacent landowners.
Interim City Manager and myself set up a meeting and met with Mr. Stokes to
inform him that we would be coming to this Council to inform them of what we
have selected as a course of action. We would build KGEZ a new set of towers
replicating the same setup that he currently has. This would be at no cost to him. In
return, we would want an agreement that the current towers would be removed from
protected airspace as soon as the new towers were up and operational. Mr. Stokes
did not necessarily agree with the procedure, but had no comment until we officially
put it in writing to him for his response. Mr. Stokes made a couple comments about
the proposed drawing. I have verified the correctness of the proposed array with the
Broadcast Engineers and they stated that we were correct on the drawings.