Despite attempts to negotiate a better deal, the Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) Board of Education Thursday voted 5-1 to pay more than $900,000 to permanently relocate a cellphone tower from the property of the soon-to-be built Ofelia Valdez-Yeager Eastside Elementary School. Trustee Brent Lee voted against the decision.
“The realistic cost is probably more around $400,000,” Assistant Superintendent Orin Williams said at the April 10 meeting. “They are getting basically double the amount that they are entitled to, or deserving, because we’re in a hard place.”
The cellphone tower is owned by SpectraSite Communications, which leased a portion of the property from the property’s previous owners. The district inherited the contract, Williams said, when it bought the land. But it wasn’t until after the purchase was completed that the district received all of the paperwork and discovered the lease would remain in effect for the next 19 years.
Williams told the board the district must remove the communications tower so construction on the newest elementary school could begin. He said the district held several meetings with residents about the school’s design, in which staff also explained the tower would need to be relocated. However, since RUSD was requesting the move, it was required to provide a new site for the tower on its property and reimburse the full relocation cost.
The district said it plans to set up a temporary cellphone tower at Abraham Lincoln High School, demolish the current tower and then build a new tower on the high school campus. The company selected to place the tower at the high school, he said, because it provided the neighborhood with the best network coverage.
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Williams said the relocation could cost upward of $934,000. His staff, he added, had attempted to negotiate the price, but the company had not been responsive to the district’s outreach.
“If I’m their lawyer, I’m not even going to talk to you anymore, because the board’s already approved it,” Lee said. “But if they hear a conversation where we’re calling them out on their negotiation, or their lack of good faith in negotiation, maybe they’re willing to come to the table.”
Lee, who was visibly frustrated by the ordeal, asked if the district had considered forcing a sale through eminent domain. Williams said consultants estimated that could cost the district more than a million dollars.
At this point, Williams said RUSD had more money than time, recommending the board approve the relocation to remain on schedule with the elementary school’s construction.
“We approve this because we have to move on with the school, we’re all committed to that, but now negotiation is over,” Trustee Dale Kinnear said at the meeting. “At the very least, we should ask for help from our city and from the county, because people should be working cooperatively, and they’re not.”
The board is set to hold a public hearing at its May 21 meeting to receive public feedback on the selected site for the relocated cellphone tower.
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