The Lake Lawrence Community Club in Yelm, Washington, may soon be home to a new cell phone tower. Most residents agree that better coverage is needed, as the majority of them deal with dropped calls and no reception on a regular basis. This has impacted several residents in business and emergency situations. According to one resident who went through an emergency ordeal with no cell coverage, “I’ll tell you what, I’d have given a million dollars to have that cell tower then. This whole community feels that way. We have people that live in this community, ones on this board, who don’t have a landline. They have a cell phone in their house and they rely on reliable cell service for any emergency that they have and for day-to-day use. I personally am totally in appreciation that there’s finally going to be a cell tower.”
One fact that remains unsaid is whether the community has received a fair proposal for the use of their land to house the telecom equipment throughout the term of the lease. Vertical Consultants can work to negotiate terms that establish rights that are beneficial to the landowner, while limiting the obligations that same party may have under that same agreement, or more to the point, get the most and give up the least. A property owner’s first step will need to be to establish “True Value” of its site and go from there.
(http://www.yelmonline.com/news/local_news/article_1b78a5f4-2158-11e3-9ce9-0019bb2963f4.html)