For the purpose that we would be getting the site, the neighbors are 100% on board for, but most other business ventures, they say no.
Our goal is to get the site and not just use it. > - If the original lead-acid battery system is still installed, have > someone professionally remove it. You don't want to deal with it. > At an unmanned site, it's got the potential to be a disaster. The batteries I believe have been upgraded if not, we have people to handle that. > - If the diesel generator has an underground tank, find out if the > tank has any type of integrity monitoring system and whether or not > you're required to keep that system in operation. An underground > diesel spill makes you an EPA target. All the outside underground tanks have been removed as required by state law, since AT&T did not want to upgrade them. The remaining tank is a 500 gallon above ground tanks located in the basement with the generator. > - LIkewise, you might as well find out if the diesel runs, and plan/ > budget for its repair, etc. No point in buying a dead diesel > generator that hasn't run in a decade. Budget for fuel to exercise > it and/or for a new control system if needed. Diesel was run by AT&T no less than 6 times a year and I was there on one of its last start ups. We have diesel techs on board. > - If the tower is near an airport and has any mandatory lighting > requirements, run away. Far away. You'll be finding out real quick > what FCC/FAA fines look like if a bulb blows out and you don't have a > remote telemetry system on it. They take tower lighting VERY seriously. No airport, no lighting required. > - Plan on installing an alarm system. These sites are regularly > vandalized by idiots. Budget accordingly. Possible add an alarm, but this will actually be a 24/7 365 day manned emergency operations center. > - Fencing around the property isn't there just for show... it keeps > you from being liable that some jackass climbed your tower and fell > off. Budget to keep it in good condition. Fence is taken care of as one of our members runs a fencing business and donates it to us. > - Weeds/brush removal... just an ongoing property hassle, but you > don't want the next grass fire through the area to burn your new toy > barn to the ground or damage it seriously. Those rock covered center > areas are there for a reason. Plan on a lot of mowing/weeding/ > killing of vegetation in some areas of the country. Still this is part of the daily operations of the facility anyways. > - Check for signs of critter infestation. You might have quite a > battle on your hands to win the place back from the field mice, who > will chew through every wire you install, and may have already > destroyed a lot of that equipment inside that looks like it's in > working condition. As far as we have been able to determine, and when inspected, the facility is still 99% sealed from the outside world, expect when the doors are open. No observations of any critter issues anywhere in the facility. AT&T kept this place in rather good condition for an unused site. Please understand that 2 members of our organization are former AT&T LL and phone center operation managers and one of them was the operations manager of this facility. > - If there's a dirt road to the site, see if it runs across private > property. Is there an easement, or has it been unused for long > enough that the property owner can effectively block you from access > to your nice new site? Part dirt road, but they are direct access to the property. The only easement is the state highway that runs in front of the office. All drives to the facility (2 to be exact) are straight from the highway to the property, no crossing any other private land. > Many of these sites are "worth it" but you have to think like a > businessperson and not like a giddy school kid about your new toy. > Is the reward worth the liability risk of owning the tower? Is the > property already an EPA cleanup site just waiting for an owner so > they can send the "you own it, here's what's leaking" letter? All records found at the facility (filling drawers full of them), paper work we have obtained from the state and AT&T indicate that this facility has a clean bill of health. > The folks that were buying them out here, typically put three to six > months worth of every-other-weekend effort into them to clean them > up, get rid of the crap inside that didn't need to be there anymore, > install some cabinets and overhead ladder racks, plug 'em up to keep > critters out, inspect the tower and fix anything that needed fixing > (handrails/safety rails around holes in the "floor" of the platforms, > adding Safe-T-Climbs to the ladder(s), etc. They put a LOT of time > into a few sites, and sold them for quite a bit more money than they > paid for them, after cleaning them up significantly. Since they > were engineered as the best "hop" sites for microwaves, many of them > truly has beautiful (if not super-high) coverage from the towers. > Especially for the local areas around the site. The tower is in better shape than a lot of newer facilities that we have seen, including a recently (last 15 year) built LL facility that is still being used from something located in another site of the county. > Think about it this way -- there's a reason American Tower didn't > spend any money renovating it and built the other tower 2 miles > away. Find out why. It's a business, and businesses don't sell > things off that are worth something, very often. American Tower never owned the facility and AT&T refused to sell it to them. Why? Well AT&T maintains a small 12x20 modular building on the back of the property, which is a requirement of an sale of the property, that is the counties fiber optic junction. All sales of the property require that AT&T be granted a $0 lease on that building for no less than 99 years. Plus, the site manager told me that AT&T was going to originally turn the main building into the fiber optic station and a small office. You go into the building and you can see where they had started to place metal wall studs and then stopped the work, which was in the last 6 years or so. Then AT&T determined that they could remain in the modular building and decided to sell the site. By that time American Tower already had built this tower. It been up for close to 10 years. Please understand that our ARES groups parent organization is an international non-profit emergency response organization made up of volunteers from all walks of life and all areas. AS such, we have a highly qualified pool of resources to maintain and operate such a facility along with everything else we deal with. All the budgeting was actually determined before the facility was ever placed up for sale.
