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CAVE JUNCTION Low-power FM tower deal hits a snag in Cave Junction One person says Crown Castle's decision 'feels profoundly disrespectful' Comment By Jeff Duewel Grants Pass Daily Courier MailTribune.com By Jeff Duewel Grants Pass Daily Courier Posted Feb. 8, 2016 at 12:01 AM By Jeff Duewel Grants Pass Daily Courier Posted Feb. 8, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News CAVE JUNCTION — A plan for a community FM radio station in Cave Junction is in limbo over an abandoned former communications tower. Cave Junction wants to have a low-power FM radio station on the air this year, transmitted from an antenna that would also enhance emergency broadcasting capabilities. A deal has been in the works for a year, calling for communications giant Crown Castle to donate to the city of Cave Junction a 100-foot-tall wooden tower, which it erected in 2001 on city property just south of town. Crown Castle built a new steel tower on the site in December to handle heavier loads from communications hardware and no longer needs the wooden one. Having its own tower would save the city $45,000 in construction costs for a new one and provide a cheap location for emergency broadcasting, benefiting the county and local fire district. But at the 11th hour, Crown Castle has seemingly pulled out of the deal, first citing liability concerns, then asking the city to pay for a $5,000 engineering study. "It's a David and Goliath story," said Keeeth Withriees, a volunteer on the steering committee for the radio station KXCJ-LP. "It feels profoundly disrespectful." Kellyn Gross, another a KXCJ steering committee member, said the giant company is being disingenuous. "On Crown Castle's own website, it states that the company collaborates with communities and governments to provide access to infrastructure and technology," Gross said. "But it doesn't. Instead, Crown Castle has been deceptive in not following through with the transfer to the city at the eleventh hour." When contacted by the Daily Courier, Crown responded via email: "Crown Castle is in ongoing talks with the city of Cave Junction regarding future plans for the tower." Withriees said those talks aren't frequent enough. "Nobody's heard a whisper from Crown Castle since they demanded $5,000 from the city for a bogus engineering report that would remain the property of them," Withriees said. City Councilor Dan Dalegowski said he last heard from Crown Castle in December, when it asked if the city was going to pay for the engineering study. Dalegowski said on Jan. 21 that Mayor Carl Jacobson approved spending $2,000 for the study. Crown, he said, failed to respond. "The mayor made this decision after the city attorney decided the city had no leverage over Crown through the lease agreement due to the terms of the lease, and the city council decided to avoid a confrontational interaction with Crown," Dalegowski said in an email. "The mayor is well aware of the long-shot nature of this action. If Crown actually does the assessment and Crown/AT&T then rejects the deal, the city has lost $2,000." Withriees said the city tried to use some leverage in December by telling Crown it was considering terminating the lease of its property. "They perked up, and suddenly the issue became, well, you the city of Cave Junction, this tiny municipality, has to pay one of the largest corporations in the country for us to contract an engineering consultant," Withriees said. The wooden tower, nearly square at 20-by-22 inches, and buried 17 feet deep in concrete, should be sound for many more years, Withriees said. A city water tank and a U.S. Cellular tower are also located on the hill, in addition to Crown Castle's new steel tower and the wooden tower. "The arrangement was always (that) they were going to transfer it to the city of Cave Junction," Withriees said. "That pole is garbage to Crown Castle. They plan to chop it up and take it to a landfill." The city needs to be on the air by the end of the year or the FCC construction permit expires, Dalegowski said. Withriees said the station would air syndicated programs, programming by high school students, oral history, music, the local weather, and talk. Reach reporter Jeff Duewel at 541-474-3720 or [email protected] By Jeff Duewel Grants Pass Daily Courier MailTribune.com By Jeff Duewel Grants Pass Daily Courier Posted Feb. 8, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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