Clock Tower Lease to Pay for Repairs

One of the city’s most visible landmarks, the City Hall clock tower, will be outfitted with cellular telephone relay equipment. But image-conscious council members say most of the equipment will be hidden from view.

“This will not harm the integrity of our landmark,” Mayor Marilyn Bruce Hastings said. “No one will ever know it’s there.”

Officials said they are not sure when the clock tower was erected. The City Hall building was dedicated in 1969. “As best as we can figure, the clock tower was there at that time,” one city official said.

The deal between the city and Pacific Bell Mobile Services will bring the city $800 a month and $10,000 in repairs to the structure, which leaks during rainstorms. After the first year of the five-year contract, the city will earn $1,000 a month.

“This is really an upgrade of our City Hall, something we really couldn’t afford to do at this time,” Hastings said.

The cellular telephone reception and transmission equipment will be installed within the iron structure of the tower and painted to match, City Manager Keith Till said. No part of the equipment will protrude from the tower, he said.

Pacific Bell has the right to extend the lease for five additional five-year terms, with a 15% increase in the lease rate required for each five-year renewal.

Answering concerns raised by Councilman Frank Laszlo, Pacific Bell representative Ted Suekawa said there would be no danger from radio frequencies emitted by the equipment.

“In general terms,” he said, “it’s 20 times less harmful than a microwave.”