Who should take over radio tower: County or township?

A public fight over a privately owned radio tower is generating a lot of static between Carver County and Hollywood Township.

The township, with about 1,100 residents, is set to take possession of the 659-foot radio tower in the coming weeks as part of a donation from Northern Lights Broadcasting. But the county has $250,000 worth of equipment atop the tower that it uses for public safety radio communications with firefighters, paramedics, sheriff's deputies and other emergency personnel.

And Hollywood Township wants to increase its rent.

"It is an integral part of our [public safety] backbone," said Chief Deputy Bob VanDenBroeke of the sheriff's department. "It was built to serve the whole county."

What rankles the county is not only the prospect that the township might try to charge more, but that such a vital safety link will be out of county control.

"The township owning this is a bad move. It's bad public policy," Carver County Board Member Randy Maluchnik told Hollywood officials. "The county should own it."

The tower, built in 1999, stands on 13 acres of township-owned land. It was built by a private company and later bought by Northern Lights, which has a new tower and facilities in New Hope. Northern Lights was paying about $9,000 a year in rent to the township.

"It's what I call the coffeehouse effect," ill will spreading by word of mouth around the county, said Kathie Anderson, a Hollywood resident and a member of a task force appointed to help the township board figure out what to do with the tower.

"Hollywood is being maligned, that we are not a team player. ... We have good people. They hear that stuff and it affects them."

The volume of the discord is increasing, as witnessed during a tense County Board work session last week that was called, in part, to figure out the tower's future.

Anderson believes that once the township takes possession of the tower, the county lease -- and the favorable terms associated with it -- will end, and so should the county's access to the tower and equipment, unless the county reaches a new agreement with the township.

"I disagree," said County Attorney James Keeler, who believes there is at least one clause in the lease that passes on the terms to future owners.

"You've been getting one helluva deal," Anderson told the County Board last week.

She said the township rents one antenna to another company for more than $7,000 a year. She believes market rates for the county antennas and dishes could be $6,000 to $9,000 a year for each.

But the county now pays $4,000 a year in rent for all six antennas, and it would like to keep that arrangement.

"These are not our antennas," County Board Chairman James Ische said last week. "It's for the public safety. It's for the good of all."

The roughly $35,000 difference in rent would not be a big deal for the county, which has an annual budget of $89 million. But it could represent a huge boost to the township, whose annual budget is $198,000.

The township, in fact, allowed the tower to be built on its land as a way to raise money and keep property taxes low.

Residents, however, say they ended up with years of headaches as problems arose with tower interference with radios, telephones, televisions and all things electrical.

Also, the eventual height of the tower was much higher than anticipated. Anderson and others blame this on variances the county issued to allow for a taller tower.

"We put up with a lot," Anderson said. "Now we would like to take back control of our land."

The county, for its part, told Hollywood officials last week that it would like to conclude a deal for a long-term lease and that it is not interested in debating the tower's history or problems that have arisen.