The Rancho Murieta Community Services District is negotiating a lease that would allow Sacramento County to place a 140-foot public-safety radio tower on CSD property. The lease is expected to go to the CSD board for approval before the end of the year. It will also require the approval of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors.

“I do want to note that it is a no-charge lease,” CSD General Manager Ed Crouse said when the Improvements Committee reviewed the proposed lease agreement at its meeting Thursday.

The tower was originally proposed for the Rancho Murieta Association tower site on Stonehouse Road, but negotiations ended after the RMA board requested rental fees for the site. In an angry letter to the board this spring, Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District Chief Don Mette called the fees "inappropriate and outrageous.”

Fire and law enforcement representatives say the tower is needed to eliminate dead spots and improve emergency communications in Rancho Murieta. The tower would be part of the emergency network the county established in the 1990s.

Although the county operates the system, the Sheriff's Department and the fire district are among the public agencies that fund it through their participation in the Sacramento Regional Radio Communications System.

Crouse said county officials met with the CSD after “the last public negotiation with RMA.… They had identified several other sites out in the area. But, since we were the first public agency, they thought it’d be appropriate to come and deal with us first. And it was closer to Rancho Murieta. I believe that they looked at our reclamation plant site, but over at the Van Vleck tank is the highest (elevation) and gives them the broadest coverage.…”

The CSD owns the water tank and the property it sits on, which was carved out of Van Vleck ranchland adjacent to Murieta South.
Crouse said the CSD will receive emergency responder radio equipment and free use of the system in exchange for leasing the property to the county at no charge.

The CSD will share in the proceeds if a cellular communications company is allowed to use the tower in the future, said CSD President Wayne Kuntz, a member of the Improvements Committee.

“I think RMA jumped on it thinking they were going to get a thousand bucks a month like a phone company, but it’s not like (the county’s) a for-profit,” Director Bob Kjome said.

Recalling the controversy, Kuntz said some people couldn’t believe RMA wanted to charge rent, while others said it should ask more. “It’s something to help the community with emergency services and so forth,” he said of the radio tower. “I’d like to get this moving. I know they would too.”

Crouse said the real estate division of Sacramento County produced the lease agreement, and CSD legal counsel has reviewed it. Kjome suggested the district’s insurance provider also review the agreement to make sure it contains adequate liability protection for the district.

Kuntz wanted to add a provision to the agreement that would allow the CSD to install equipment for a wireless Internet access system.

Crouse said the terms of the lease agreement require the county to pay all costs related to the project. County officials have estimated the tower will cost over $1.5 million to build.

Previous coverage

• Fire officials pay second visit, again make case for radio tower (May 1, 2008)
• County officials will bring radio tower request to RMA (April 15, 2008)
• Fire official criticizes RMA’s proposed fees for public-safety radio tower (April 3, 2008)