School board approves Verizon co-locations and Bethel High utility easement extension

The Hampton City School Board on Dec. 3 approved actions that allow wireless carriers to co-locate equipment on several school-owned tower sites and authorized an extension to a utility easement at Bethel High School.

Dr. Bollin presented the items for board action: a Verizon co-location at the Emma Drive site with a monthly fee of $1,500 (annual $18,000) and a five-year escalation clause at 15 percent; a Verizon co-location and access easement request at the Phoenix Bethel site with a monthly fee of $2,314.87 (annual $27,778.44) and a 3 percent annual escalation; and a Newport News Waterworks request to place a small piece of equipment at the Phoenix Bethel site for a monthly fee of $400 (annual $4,800) with a 5 percent escalation. Dr. Bollin also noted that Crown Castle will update a generator at the Old Buckroe Road site as part of its contract with HCS.

Separately, during construction of Bethel High School's science wing crews discovered a water line needed to be rerouted outside the existing easement. Newport News Waterworks requested a utility easement extension to accommodate the new connection; staff brought that extension to the board for approval.

Board members moved to place the deliberation items on the action agenda and then voted to approve action items 6.01—6.04 as a block, which included these co-location agreements and the Bethel easement extension. A point of order during the action discussion noted item 6.02 was a superintendent recommendation regarding an employee grievance; the board nonetheless approved the block of actions. The motion carried by roll call vote with board members recorded as voting aye.