North Canton council looks to trade cellphone tower rent for one-time cash payout

NORTH CANTON − Council is set to vote Oct. 24 on emergency legislation to swap receiving monthly cellphone tower lease payments for a one-time cash payout to help fund the replacement of a new building at Dogwood Pool.

Councilman Jamie McCleaster, Ward 1, briefed council members Monday on the key points. He is the chair of the council's Utilities Committee.

McCleaster in his comments in council and after the meeting said the city allows a subsidiary of AT&T to place its cellphone tower equipment on the city's water tower at 8901 Pleasantwood Ave. NW in Lake Township. The initial lease began in 1998. The city and Ameritech Wireless Communications renewed the deal in 2018, and it's set to last until 2058. McCleaster said the city gets about $2,000 a month in lease payments. The payments do not rise with inflation.

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But if council approves the legislation, council would authorize the city administration to complete an agreement with Unison, a Hamilton, Massachusetts-based company that purchases leases from the owners of the towers.

Unison would pay the city a $471,000, and the company would receive the lease payments from Ameritech until 2058. The amount would be less than the roughly $864,000 still remaining to be paid under the lease.

The city would get a one-time infusion of cash to help cover the cost of replacing the more than 52-year-old building by Dogwood Pool, which could cost more than $1 million. The work would include building a new pavilion and bath house.

In addition, if Unison finds other companies willing to lease space on the water tower for its telecommunications equipment, Unison would pay the city 75% of the lease payments. As part of the agreement, the city cannot revoke the easement, which gives the AT&T subsidiary access to maintain and replace cellphone tower equipment on the water tower, even if Unison were to breach the agreement.

Catherine Farina, the city's deputy director of administration, said the city was able to obtain a grant from the state's capital budget of $350,000 for the Dogwood Pool project. But that was less than the $750,000 city officials were hoping to receive. City officials hope to complete construction of the new building by fall next year.

"We have a swimming pool that's going to require an upgrade," at-large council member Daryl Revoldt said. "This is one way potentially to marry this with a state grant of $350,000."

Another proposed charter amendment

Separately, council discussed a draft of a proposed city charter amendment that would modify the process when a council seat or the mayor's job becomes vacant.

City voters in November will decide on a charter amendment that would increase the term council members and the mayor serve to four years from two years.

Revoldt said if approved the city could face a situation where if someone elected to council were to step down shortly after taking office, the replacement appointed by council would serve the nearly four years remaining in the term.

He wants an election for the vacancy for the remainder of the term to take place for a council seat to become vacant more than 90 days before a city municipal election in the middle of the unexpired four-year term. To keep the job, an appointee would have to be elected by voters in that next election to serve the remaining two years of a term. During discussion, council members decided they wanted this provision to also apply to the position of mayor.

However, Revoldt, a former council president who became North Canton's mayor in the late 1990s when a prior mayor stepped down, wants to also change the rules on who becomes mayor if the city's mayor resigns or dies before the end of their term. Currently, the council president automatically becomes mayor.

But Revoldt has said that council president arguably has more power in practice than the mayor. And a council member may be reluctant to seek to be council president if they would become mayor on a mayor's resignation.

So the new amendment drafted would allow council to choose a new mayor from among the seven council members. If council failed to agree on a new mayor within 30 days, then the council president would become mayor. While the city has no mayor, the city administrator would have the powers of mayor, which is a part-time position. Those powers include being primarily to sign or veto legislation and appoint the city administrator, subject to a confirmation vote by council.

Council member John Orr, Ward 4, said he would prefer to postpone any further consideration of the amendment until after the November election to see if voters agree on extending terms to four years. If council votes to put the amendment on the ballot, city voters would vote on the measure in November 2023.

Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. Twitter: @rwangREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: North Canton council on verge of taking cellphone tower cash payout