31 July 2018 — 1243 mdt

Creston tower dustup reminds us that good intentions do not nullify
the need for school boards to seek public comment on projects

Creston’s school board thought it had a winner. In exchange for letting Montana Sky build a 36-meter-high monopole tower on school property, the school would receive broadband internet free of charge. In June, the board — evidently learning nothing from the donnybrook over a proposed cell phone tower atop Flathead High School — quietly approved the deal without seeking public comment.

Apparently, the board outsourced taking public comment to Montana Sky, which decided it needed no permits requiring comment.

That was a mistake. Property owners adjacent to the site of the proposed tower, convinced the tall structure would devalue their property significantly, raised cain. The school board ended up taking both public comment and some flak. But in the end, the Daily InterLake reported, Montana Sky agreed to reposition the tower to lessen its impact on the adjacent property owners.

Why, given the uproar over the Flathead High cell tower, the Creston school board thought sticking a tower next to private property would not be controversial is a puzzler. It’s possible the board was so convinced it had a great deal that it concluded no one could or would object. It’s also possible the board decided to try to get away without seeking public comment, reckoning it was better to beg forgiveness than to ask “what do you think?”

That’s a mistake. Overall, the project appears to have merit. The Creston school needs broadband. This is a way of providing it without raising taxes. But the project has impacts, especially on adjacent property owners. The school board, by failing to honor its obligation to seek comment before voting to approve the deal, ignored those impacts and broke faith with the community that elected it.

School boards need to do better. Towers for electronic communication and other structures are not trivial things. Not taking public comment on proposals for building those structures because the project won’t raise taxes and will bring money or service to the school undercuts a school board’s credibility in the community it represents. Come bond, levy, and school board, elections, the neighbors will remember when their school board tried to sneak something past them, and they will vote accordingly.