City ponders tower's lease

SANDPOINT — The lease of a radio tower on city-owned property could transfer to a local Internet provider if the City Council signs off on the proposal.

The 100-foot tower and a railroad container that houses electrical equipment on Baldy Mountain, owned by John Sonneland of Spokane, could transfer to Wired or Wireless, a Spokane-based Internet service provider with an office in Sandpoint.

WOW’s purchase of the tower and its equipment is contingent on whether the city allows the company to use the Baldy site.

WOW has agreed to pay the city more than $800 in back rent, in addition to $1,700 annually to lease the property, company owner Bill Geibel said.

He and Sonneland entered into an agreement, Geibel said, but it requires the city’s blessing before it is signed.

That prospect seemed thorny this week because Sonneland threatened to sue the city for terminating his contract.

Sonneland, who owns Courtesy Communications, a pager company who built the tower at Baldy Mountain and has leased the property for 20 years, pulled his electronics out of the railroad container and quit paying rent last August.

The city terminated his lease and asked Sonneland to shore up his account, but he refused.

At a committee meeting this week he argued because his electronics were no longer on the site, he owed the city no additional money.

Council member Marcia Ogilvie, said the city’s position is to make any transition from one lessor to another as smooth as possible.

“We wanted to make it amicable,” she said.

The committee — Ogilvie abstained from voting — recommended that council, at its next meeting, allow Geibel to pay the back rent and use the city-owned site to transmit broadband Internet.

Because a rate sheet sets the price of renting space on the property, the city isn’t required to accept bids for it use.

“We have a lease schedule that the council passed several years ago,” Mayor Gretchen Heller said.

A final decision will be made by council after the city’s attorney reviews the agreement.

“No decision has been made,” the mayor said.

 Tracy Tippett of WOW’s Larch Street office said if the city allows the transaction, it would add another repeater site to WOW’s five local towers on surrounding mountaintops.

“Those overlooking mountain top sites are imperative to get a line of site to subscribers,” Tippett said. “We’re always working to find additional sites and access to get coverage.”

WOW, which already subleases a spot on Baldy, plans to install Internet equipment at the new site and add a two-way radio transmitter if the lease is accepted.

The company, which also owns AiR-PiPE, a rural broadband Internet service, recently purchased cable rights in Hope and Clark Fork and plans to soon provide cable Internet service along the northeast end of the lake.

 “We’re repairing the attachments and cable systems,” Geibel said. “As soon as we’re done in Hope, we will move down the line to Clark Fork.”