Manatee residents clash with county over controversial radio tower

At least 100 residents entrenched in a debate with Manatee County officials over a planned 185-foot public safety tower along Prospect Road voiced their concerns in a meeting with county officials Thursday night.

The public meeting was held at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church, at 7461 Prospect Road, which sits catty-corner from the tower site, 7510 Prospect Road.

The discussion marked more than two months since county commissioners voted 6-1 to halt construction of the tower on May 22 after residents complained they were blindsided by the $1 million project.

Paul Alexander, Manatee County’s information technology director, led the discussion and started it by calling up several fire, EMS and law enforcement officials to talk about the importance of the tower, and its location. Representatives from Sarasota County were also in attendance.

Southern Manatee Fire Chief Brian Gorski spoke about the situation in south Manatee County regarding its emergency communications system, saying its outdated and spotty signal is dangerous for both emergency responders and the public — especially in the southwest region of the county where the tower is proposed to be built.

The new public safety tower, county officials say, would be the industry standard and would provide seamless radio coverage in the University Parkway corridor between Interstate 75 and U.S. 301, and extending south into Sarasota County. The region, county officials and first responders said, is mostly considered a “dead zone,” providing big connection problems as crews try to respond to various emergency calls.

It would also connect Manatee and Sarasota first responders to help coordinate efforts to respond to calls along the border, instead of being on two separate systems as they are now.

Rick Blanco, Southern Manatee’s deputy fire chief, talked about being on countless calls when firefighters couldn’t talk to each other from inside a burning building.

“We’ve got and have had a major flaw and we are here to fix it,” Blanco said to the crowd. “I’ve been doing this for so long and I’ve seen so many situations and issues near University Parkway. And we at times have had to make extreme field arrangements and adjustments because of how unreliable it it, to make sure everyone is safe. That is why this is so important to us.”

The chief, along with other responders, all echoed that the tower, which they called a P-25, is sorely needed.

“We use the same incident command system (as Sarasota,) we have the same policies in regard to what we do in treating patients, to putting out structure fires,” Gorski said, “but to do that job at our best, we need this P25 system and we need a tower that’s going to be able to provide us with that communication coverage.”

Alexander went on to tell residents why the Prospect Road parcel was selected — explaining about a few other sites that the county evaluated but that did not make the cut due to various issues.

One prospective site was at the county’s new transit station, he said, but it was unacceptable because it would have been in the flight path of Sarasota Bradenton International Airport. Other locations, officials said, were ruled out because of height regulations or for being too far away to affect the “dead zone” region that they are trying to fix.

Community members were quick to counter, saying they acknowledged the need for the tower and agreed it should be built to make everyone safer, but questioned the way the county handled it.

Residents said no public hearing or notice for input on the 185-foot structure was given, accusing the county of violating procedure.

Several residents voiced their concerns during the question-answer session after the presentation, with nearly all of them blaming county officials for keeping them in the dark about the tower plans until after construction had already began.

“What did Manatee County do? Nothing,” Gary Adams, the Crescent Lakes subdivision resident living closest to the tower site, said in the meeting.

“No county meetings, no public meetings, no public input was asked. This tower is 88 feet from my property and I found two weeks after construction was underway — two weeks ... with a flyer, not even a letter.”

Adams said he has been trying to seek answers from County Administrator Ed Hunzeker ever since and hasn’t heard back.

Hunzeker opened up the meeting but left early before the public was able to ask their questions.

“Only until I went to the commissioners did anything happen. The whole thing has been done in total secrecy,” Adams said. “I want to hear a good location where we can put this tower to serve the needs of the community but one that doesn’t penalize the 700 residents surrounding this site. I don’t think Ed Hunzeker or anyone from the county would want a tower sitting 88 feet from their front yard.”

Other residents echoed Adams’ sentiment and said they felt like their voices were just ignored.

“I don’t think that anything has changed and it’s sad that they even started building,” resident Jan Jones said after the meeting. “We wish they had this meeting to discuss this with us before money was spent.”

Glen Gibellina, who lives a few blocks down the street from the tower site, said after the meeting that he felt like a “dog in a pony show.”

“This should have never happened. They could have done loads of things differently,” he said. “They haven’t done zip with that parcel for years and all of a sudden a huge tower is going to be built there with no public notice?”

Alexander and other county officials collected comment cards after the meeting but didn’t give a definitive answer if they will find another site for the tower.

He did say that if officials did decide to relocate the tower, it could take anywhere between six to 12 months and cost between between $1 to $1.4 million. There’s also a possible fee that would have to be paid to the construction company for a delay.

So what’s next? Well, that’s a little murky.

At the very least, county planners are expected to “draw up a report and put up some analysis and present that to the board,” County Commissioner Robin DiSabatino said at the meeting. She said she estimates that could happen in the next 30 days.

Until then, construction remains halted.

This story was originally published July 27, 2018 at 7:33 AM.