Cell Towers, Schools, Cities

At GTCO-ATL, we have brought forward a lot of information over the past two years regarding the push to place cell phone towers on our school grounds.  We have uncovered the fact that the initial drive for this revenue generating idea came from the Lakeside High School community, specifically a former board member, Terry Morris, who later became the campaign manager for another former board member, Paul Womack.  Womack placed the cell tower issue on the plate of the Budget, Audit and Finance Committee in 2010 and then acted a chairman in the July 2011 meeting of the school board in which they voted to approve towers for 9 campuses, mostly elementary schools, 2 high schools and 1 comprehensive school for the disabled.

Mr. Womack is a former Republican lobbyist who owns several homes in both DeKalb and Fulton, so it is not really clear which one he actually resides in, but for the school board purpose of running in District 4, he stated his address to be the one in the area between Briarlake Elementary School and Lakeside High School.  The people, he often claimed, asked him to come back after having retired from public service in the late 1980's.  He was a full time school board member for most of the 1980's and late 1970's.  When he stepped down, Terry Morris filled the seat.  When she lost it in a re-election campaign, probably due to the cell tower issue, she helped Womack come back to the board.  But, Morris and her agenda for a cell tower at Lakeside never really went away.

We have often pondered who Mr. Womack considered his constituents or his community as it obviously was not the children.  Education has suffered tremendously during his time on the school board, having served the majority of the 10 year period that SACS now claims was what led to the eventual ousting of the entire board sans Womack and McChesney who were not re-elected.  Their replacements, McMahan and Orson, are still serving their brief, two-year term currently although it was originally expected that they would be ousted along with the rest of the school board.  The state BOE never really explained that one.  They have just moved on, as has most of the county.  Most people are assuming that the education system is on its way  back.  Michael Thurmond just found loads of money and the new board appears to be competent in their new roles and will likely regain the coveted SACS accreditation.

But, recently we saw the name Terry Morris pop up again, along with former Superintendent Brad Bryant and it wasn't related to schools or cell towers exactly... or was it?  They were listed as "co-sponsors" of a Lakeside City Fundraiser.   What is Lakeside City?  Well, first you have to start with Lakeside High School, which we have absolutely no problem with and would never say anything negative about with regards to the large majority of people who send their children to high school there.  This is not about education, families or children.  This is an issue about Georgia politics and how nothing is truly sacred if they can find a way to make money off of it.  Lakeside High School "advocates" were behind the drive to get a cell tower for their school, but they were defeated in court because the school is on donated property.  But, still, they are trying again.  Perhaps they found new space near a home or store that they have been allowed to use, but why haven't they complained at all about this two year delay we have been experiencing between the time the school board okay-ed the towers and the time it has taken to build them, still not complete and now with contracts that appear to be void, except for the Lakeside contract.  It is the only one with a question mark over it because it does not have a final T-mobile signature.  AND it was signed by Dr. Walker and Dr. Atkinson, both of whom are not longer serving our county in this regard.

Apparently, the Lakeside folks decided it was easier to switch to Verizon if they didn't like their dropped calls rather than wait two years for a new tower to be built and then fought over in court.
Some residents who live near a feeder elementary school to Lakeside High now want to form an actual city based around their high school (even though they live in another area that goes by its own name and has its own school named after it) and they want to use the tax dollars from other areas to pay for it which is causing some controversy.  They need to raise $30K for a feasibility study.   Who do we know that goes around giving out $25K - $30K for every co-locator?  It will be interesting to see if the "turf" industry leadership of this particular city exploratory group will be listing the contributors to their funding study.