Showing posts with label Monetti & Associates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monetti & Associates. Show all posts

Friday, August 30, 2019

Hollywood City Commission makes great points about relative failings of independent consultant's report on placement of Broward's 911 radio antenna in Hollywood, but to what end exactly? Sadly, perhaps none. And in the end, the South Florida news media does not seem keen on giving the issue the impartial overview it always deserved; video

Hollywood City Commission makes great points about relative failings of independent consultant's report on placement of Broward's 911 radio antenna in Hollywood, but to what end exactly? Sadly, perhaps none. And in the end, the South Florida news media does not seem keen on giving the issue the impartial overview it always deserved; video



Today's blog post is a follow up to my August 19th post, 
So THAT just happened... for the worst. Broward County's 325-foot 911 Services radio tower at West Lake Park in #HollywoodFL just got the green light from an independent consultant. So now what? Don't hold your breath, Hollywood!
https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2019/08/so-that-just-happened-for-worst-broward.html

 Which followed this post of mine:
May 6th, 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

https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-west-lake-park-radio-tower-issue-is.html

 So, in the week since we last discussed it, I hope you didn't choose to disregard my sound advice and choose to hold your breath, perhaps believing that by doing so, somehow, common sense would suddenly prevail in the long-running battle between the City of Hollywood (and a majority of its citizens) versus Broward County and their insistence that the eventual placement of a 325-foot high 911 emergency services radio tower antenna in  West Lake Park , a very popular county park in northern Hollywood, off of Sheridan Street, was the best possible choice to be made.
Photo from @SAVEWESTLAKE

 Map here: https://goo.gl/maps/mM7qZd1Hz6aBHqx2A

That unpopular plan has been almost universally opposed by Hollywood residents and elected officials on many different grounds, usually, on environmental and financial grounds, though there are clearly many Hollywood citizens who were opposed to the radio tower being located there, near the Anne Kolb Nature Center, a county-run facility named after a former Broward commissioner and environmentalist who represented the southeast part of the county, where Hollywood is located.
idistr, for reasons involving health fears and simple aesthetics.

 And to quote myself last week: 
This all taking place despite the fact that it's clear to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention that the 911 radio tower antenna tower, no matter where it was located in the greater Hollywood area to cover SE Broward, would NOT be complete until... NEXT YEAR.
Not that you would know any of this from the vast majority of the South Florida news media's coverage of this issue the past few months, but it's true. It will be finished NEXT YEAR.
So, why don't the press say that in their stories and newscasts?
Good question.

  but the radio antenna tower was needed to greatly improve First Responder communications via their 911 emergency services system, NOT to improve a citizen's efforts in reaching 911 and requesting help, as several Miami TV newscasts the past few months have allowed people to state on the air without anyone there knowing any better.
I know what you're thinking. Nonsense getting aired on South Florida TV stations?
Yes, continuing a longstanding tradition.

 So, no, holding your breath until only common sense reigned in Hollywood and Broward would be Mission Impossible, and the reasons why were on full display late Wednesday afternoon at Hollywood City Hall at the first Hollywood City Commission meeting since July 4th, following Ciizen Comments around 5 p.m.

So, in short, on June 19th, the Broward County Commission and the City of Hollywood City Commission agreed to hire an independent consultant to evaluate two proposed locations for a new radio tower in east Hollywood. The expert's report recommended the West Lake Park location just off of Sheridan Road -west of the West Lake Commons retail area on U.S.-1 that occupies the spot that was once home to the Hollywood Pontiac car dealership- and not the CIRC Hotel location that the city was urging. 
Per the terms of the agreement between the City and County, the independent expert’s decision is binding on both parties. 

 And so it was that a little bit after five o'clock on Wednesday, the consultant, Gary Monetti, came into the Lions Den at Hollywood City Hall and tried his best to defend his report, beat back the lions, and emerge largely unscathed.





Watch this debate here from the August 28th, 2019 City of Hollywood City Commission meeting


 So here is how I saw the discussion it from my seat in the chambers.... and what I thought.

Considering all the attention that the issue has received going back to last year -shocker!- there were no members of the South Florida press at the meeting, just yours truly.


Dave 
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