Webb/KGEZ Tower Replacement ProposalTO: Mayor and City Council Members
FM: Interim City Manager, Myrt Webb
Airport Manager, Fred Leistiko
City Attorney, Charles Harball
Subject: KGEZ Tower Replacement Proposal
Attached is the itemized list for the AM radio tower site development costs as prepared by our
consulting engineers Hatfield & Dawson. This list includes those items that will be required to
replicate the new tower array at the new location. Some of these items may turn out to be
unnecessary, and some may end up being minimal costs at best. The costs would be considerably
cheaper, of course, if some of KGEZ's existing equipment could be used. If, for example, we
could re -use their current transmitters, there would be a saving of almost $100,000. The same
could be done with the antenna feed system hardware. This would not be determined until the
final deal is struck. (See attached Itemization of AM Tower site Development Cost Estimates)
Without a thorough inspection of the existing equipment, we must assume it is one level above
junk and is not being well maintained. Therefore, we have planned for the worst case scenario.
We will not construct a gold plated system, but, will construct an excellent system that will be far
better than what currently exists at the station.
Over and above the tower array will be the cost of the permanent easement for the land the
towers will sit on. We have had James Kelley, appraiser, do a before and after appraisal of the
selected site to determine the loss in value for the referenced parcels of real estate. The appraisals
were made based on Federal Land Acquisition standards. (See attached Market Value of
proposed Easements for KGEZ radio towers installation)
The combined cost to construct the towers and acquire the permanent easements for the towers
location comes to $615,400. This is a worst case scenario where the actual costs could be about
$150,000 less. We will not know until we have serious discussions and/or resolve it through the
legal system.
Our offer to Mr. Stokes is to build him a new set of radio towers in exchange for removal of the
existing towers. Exactly how we do that legally is a process we need flexibility to accomplish.
If our offer is refused on all counts and negotiations are halted, we would immediately go into
court to seek a Declaratory Judgment that the towers are illegal in their current configuration.
We need to get legal ownership of the old tower system so that we could possibly use
some components to build the new system, thereby saving us money.
2. This legal ownership will guarantee us that the towers will come down in a timely manner.
3. We could offer an incentive to Mr. Stokes to allow us to use some of the current
equipment to build the new system. This could put some money in his pocket and save us
costs. We would work this out on a line by line identification of the equipment needed.
4. We will offer Mr. Stokes the option to take a sum of money which he could use to build
the new towers at a location of his choice. We would require him to sign ownership of the
current towers over to the City before any money changes hands. We would negotiate the
sum based on the costs we have established. He would be given a reasonable time to
construct the towers before we tear down the old towers.
5. The FAA has stated that they will release funds to the City Airport with one of the
following documents in hand; 1) A change of ownership agreement signed by Mr. Stokes
giving the City ownership of the towers at some specified date. 2) A District Court order
to remove the towers. The funds released would have to be verified with the FAA before
we sign any deal where we anticipate use of FAA funds to pay for it. The two grants
mentioned before were the non -primary entitlement money on hold. This currently is
about $600,000. The second is the $1.3 million spent on land acquisitions so far.
6. Immediate funds available in the mean time for immediate use is the estimated $300,000 in
the Airport TIF and the estimated $200,000 in the airport capital improvement account.
These funds alone will not cover the proposal, but I will run any proposal by the FAA for
funding assistance before we proceed with any final deal. There are scenarios where the
FAA would participate in the deal. I would not want Mr. Stokes to know this fact. An
example would be giving Mr. Stokes funds to build the towers at another location of his
choice. This constitutes a quasi -buy-out and could be partially funded with FAA funds. I
have been told that in this scenario we could use non -primary entitlements.
7. If we get the expected NO, we need to be prepared to file for a Declaratory Judgement
that the towers were illegal when constructed and remain illegal today. We will do this to
narrow down the inevitable condemnation process.