Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008 • City strikes deal to bring radio communication device to Memorial Ballpark

Publisher’s note: This story originally appeared in the Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008 edition of the Lassen County Times.

The next time you catch a ballgame at Memorial Ballpark, a quick glance toward the left field stadium light and you’ll notice something different.

That’s because the city has struck a deal with Omnipoint Communications, Inc. to use part of the park as a communications site.

“Under this proposal, the tenant would replace an existing field light pole with a new pole that would then support the field lights and the communication equipment,” said City Administrator Rob Hill in his report to the council at its Wednesday, Aug. 20 meeting.

As part of the agreement, Omnipoint, which does business as T-Mobile USA, Inc., will be in charge of all maintenance costs associated with the equipment.

In exchange for letting Omnipoint use the site, the city will receive a monthly rent of $1,200, or $14,400 for the first year. Omnipoint agreed to pay a three percent increase every year following the company plans on having the equipment at the park. Omnipoint put together a contract that City Attorney Peter Talia said was acceptable to the city. The agreement reached between the city and the company allows for Omnipoint to remove the equipment at any time. It would be the company’s responsibility to replace the field light pole.

An Omnipoint representative at the Aug. 20 meeting said having the equipment at the ballpark would not cause any disturbances. He said the reason the company was pursuing the field light pole in the first place was because of the lack of high locations around the city, and the need for T-Mobile to expand its telecommunications network.