Monday, May 6, 2019

The West Lake Park Radio Tower issue is rubbing #HollywoodFL residents the wrong way, esp. people who don't see 325-foot tall radio antennas, even for 911 services, being compatible for a nature park. Especially when there's a better answer available. @SAVEWESTLAKE

The West Lake Park Radio Tower issue is rubbing #HollywoodFL residents the wrong way, esp. people who don't see 325-foot tall radio antennas, even for 911 services, being compatible for a  nature park. Especially when there's a better answer available. @SAVEWESTLAKE

Updated Tuesday May 7th, 2019








Lakes Residents, The HLCA Board of Directors supports the Circ Hotel rooftop as the best place for the County's radio communications antennas. Many thanks to the residents of West Lake Village for all their hard work on this issue. Also many thanks to all concerned residents who came out to support West Lake Park at the Rally on Saturday. Broward County is proposing to install eight 325' towers throughout Broward to have a countywide emergency 911 system for first-responders. They plan to install two towers in Hollywood, one in East Hollywood and one West Hollywood. The East Hollywood site they proposed is in West Lake Park. The City of Hollywood asked Broward County to look at the rooftop of the Circ Hotel as an alternative to building a tower in the park, as they are currently utilizing rooftops at Point of the Americas and Playa Del Sol condo buildings. The County commissioners voted to have a feasibility study done on the Circ Hotel. The feasibility study was completed and the City's experts say the study is positive for the Circ rooftop, but it is biased towards a tower in the park. Any challenges cited in the report are either standard procedure for rooftop installations or estimates and assumptions without detail. The City had an engineering study completed as well and the engineer stated that the County's report takes an extreme position in terms of costs and coverage. Further he stated that the Circ can be done without extensive modifications to the building, at lower costs than the County report estimated and without loss of coverage. On April 16th, the Broward Commission voted to move forward with West Lake Park based on the results of the County's feasibility study. Comm Furr and Comm Ryan, both wanted confirmation that the County was working simultaneously with the Circ in the event there is a problem with the park, which the County administrator Bertha Henry said they would. They also approved voting on removing the current restrictive covenant currently protecting the park to a
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Just wanted to share some news about an important Hollywood Lakes area story that has been percolating just below the surface for quite some time and only gotten the right amount of attention and analysis at what seems to me to be odd times. 
At the last minute. Not unlike how it came up in the first place.

Many of the most trusted people I know in Hollywood wonder why it's come to this, and why this issue could not have been handled in a more transparent and professional manner by Broward County. But it was not.
So that's why Tuesday morning's proceedings are key.

Here's some of the backstory...

First, this is the website for the Broward County park involved in the controversy, West Lake Park in Hollywood, at 1200 Sheridan Road, not in West Park, the city west of Hallandale Beach, as some South Florida media have erroneously been reporting. 
http://www.broward.org/Parks/Pages/Park.aspx?=44

Background info from Broward County's website, agenda item #62:
http://cragenda.broward.org/agenda_publish.cfm?id=&mt=ALL&get_month=5&get_year=2019&dsp=ag&seq=586







Local 10 News
Parker Branton, Reporter
Protesters rally against county's plan to build radio tower in park
Posted: 11:54 AM, May 04, 2019

https://www.local10.com/video/protesters-rally-against-county-s-plan-to-build-radio-tower-in-park










Local 10 News
Commissioners favor building radio tower in West Lake Park
Residents worry structure will be an eyesore

By Saira Anwer - Reporter, Tim Swift - Local10.com Digital Editor
Posted: 5:39 PM, April 16, 2019Updated: 6:27 PM, April 16, 2019

https://www.local10.com/news/florida/broward/commissioners-favor-building-radio-tower-in-west-lake-park






South Florida Sun Sentinel
Broward reverses course and looks to put radio tower in Hollywood park
Larry Barszewski, Reporter, South Florida Sun Sentinel
April 10, 2019


There are plenty of crossed fingers in Broward County hoping another major police incident doesn’t occur before a new public safety radio system starts operating. But time is slipping away as the county struggles to nail down the final details.

Commissioners have been criticized for not moving faster to replace the county’s old and overloaded system — a system that was crippled during the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting in 2017 and the Parkland school shooting last year.

The new system would help police and firefighters responding to 911 calls, improving their ability to transmit and receive messages anywhere in the county, including in schools, condominiums and hospitals. It will also be able to handle more traffic, so police at a major crime scene aren’t having to resort to using hand signals to communicate or aren’t able to get an open line to dispatchers.

The most recent stumbling block the county has faced is where to put a Hollywood antenna needed for the system. The city wants the antenna placed on top of the Circ downtown apartment high rise, where it will be less conspicuous than erecting a 325-foot tower in West Lake Park.

Read the rest of the story at:




Local 10 News
HOLLYWOOD
BSO radio tower delayed again after concerns from Hollywood residents
Equipment needed to improve Sheriff's Office's communications system

By Tim Swift, Terrell Forney - Reporter
Posted: 5:15 PM, January 29, 2019Updated: 7:05 PM, January 29, 2019
https://www.local10.com/news/florida/hollywood/bso-radio-tower-delayed-again-after-concerns-from-hollywood-residents


The following email was sent out this morning by Hollywood Lakes Civic Association President Terry Cantrell, who has given me permission to share it here on the blog to get the word out about Tuesday's important meeting.

Also, if you are interested in more information, the URL for the Twitter handle @SAVEWESTLAKE is at https://twitter.com/SAVEWESTLAKE

Lakes logo new
  
Lakes Residents,
  
The HLCA Board of Directors supports the Circ Hotel rooftop as the best place for the County's radio communications antennas. Many thanks to the residents of West Lake Village for all their hard work on this issue. Also many thanks to all concerned residents who came out to support West LakePark at the Rally on Saturday.

Broward County is proposing to install eight 325' towers throughout Broward to have a countywide emergency 911 system for first-responders. They plan to install two towers in Hollywood, one in East Hollywood and one West Hollywood. The East Hollywood site they proposed is in West Lake Park. 
The City of Hollywood asked Broward County to look at the rooftop of the Circ Hotel as an alternative to building a tower in the park, as they are currently utilizing rooftops at Point of the Americas and Playa Del Sol condo buildings. The County commissioners voted to have a feasibility study done on the Circ Hotel. 

The feasibility study was completed and the City's experts say the study is positive for the Circ rooftop, but it is biased towards a tower in the park. Any challenges cited in the report are either standard procedure for rooftop installations or estimates and assumptions without detail. The City had an engineering study completed as well and the engineer stated that the County's report takes an extreme position in terms of costs and coverage. Further he stated that the Circ can be done without extensive modifications to the building, at lower costs than the County report estimated and without loss of coverage.

On April 16th, the Broward Commission voted to move forward with West Lake Park based on the results of the County's feasibility study. Comm Furr and Comm Ryan, both wanted confirmation that the County was working simultaneously with the Circ in the event there is a problem with the park, which the County administrator Bertha Henry said they would.  They also approved voting on removing the current restrictive covenant currently protecting the park to allow for the tower to be built. That vote will take place:

Tuesday, May 7, 2019, at 10 AM.

At the County Hall Chambers

4th Floor, Government Center
115 South Andrews Ave
Ft Lauderdale, FL 33301

Please come on 5/7/19 and make your voice heard. You will need to fill out a card to speak upon arrival. Parking is available in a metered lot to the north and corner of SW 1st Avenue and Broward Boulevard, or within the parking garage located west of the SW 1st Avenue on SW 2nd Street, by the railroad tracks. They do validate parking for the garage by the railroad tracks and it is free.

The City of Hollywood has been very supportive as well as a couple of the county commissioners, such as Comm Beam Furr and Comm Tim Ryan.  If you would like to write to the Broward County Commissioners to tell them to please move forward with the Circ Hotel and not to remove the covenant on the park, you can use the following email addresses:


We must show Broward County Commissioners that we do NOT want the 325 foot Tower in our Park. We DO NOT want them to remove the protections that now exist.

Tell them to Park it on the Roof of the Circ Now , before they vote on May 7!!!!
HLCA
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