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Commissioners give consensus to explore transferring Colodis tower interest to emergency services
Summary
The board agreed by consensus to have Information Services pursue consulting with Gunnarson on options to transfer the county’s interest in the Colodis communications tower to Benton County Emergency Services, to avoid a lease-restoration clause and allow BCES to manage subleases that generate revenue.
Commissioners on July 22 gave informal approval for the county’s information-services director to pursue a proposal with consultant Gunnarson to transfer the county’s interest in a Colodis communications tower to Benton County Emergency Services (BCES).
A county staff member explained the county had purchased and constructed a tower on a farmer-owned site and currently holds a lease with the farmer plus subleases to carriers including T-Mobile and US Cellular (and a sub-sublease to StarTouch). The staff member said terminating the county’s lease would trigger a restoration provision that would require returning the site to its original condition, which the county does not want; the preferred alternative is to transfer the county’s interest to BCES so the tower can continue to be used and the subleases can be managed by the emergency-services entity.
The staff member summarized the plan: “we basically wanna transfer our interest in the tower to BCES because they're gonna utilize that, and then they can take over, these other subleases, which do generate some revenue.” Commissioners sought clarification about who would lead the process and whether BCES or Benton County Emergency Services would assume lease responsibilities. The board did not take a final vote; instead, it asked Information Services to return with a contract proposal for consulting services with Gunnarson to evaluate and execute the transfer.
Commissioners noted the matter requires further legal and contractual work, including negotiating a contract with Gunnarson and determining cost-sharing with existing lessees; no funding authorization or final action was taken at the July 22 meeting.
