Edgartown selectmen voted Monday to send a letter to AT&T Mobility with a deadline for completing a lease contract for a multi-carrier wireless service facility capable of hosting multiple antennas inside a silo on Katama Farm. The town owns the property and has been negotiating a lease for the antenna, which is intended to expand and improve mobile phone service in the area.
“It has come to my attention that AT&T has been dragging their feet on signing the lease which was given to them on May 6,” Art Smadbeck, chairman of the board of selectmen, said. “I think we should vote to ask for them to have the signed lease back to us by Monday, June 9.”
The board voted unanimously to ask town counsel to draft a letter setting the deadline.
The contract calls for AT&T Mobility to pay $28,000 to rent the space from the town for the first year. Each succeeding year the rent will increase by three percent. Over the 10-year lease, the town would realize $321,000 in revenue.
Also at their Monday meeting, town manager Pam Dolby said Edgartown received six applications for the job of town procurement officer. A committee including highway superintendent Stuart Fuller, harbormaster Charlie Blair, police chief Tony Bettencourt, library director Jill Hughes, current procurement officer Jen O’Hanlon, and Ms. Dolby will interview the candidates on June 11.
Selectmen accepted two bids for town-owned land seized because the owners failed to pay taxes on the property.
The board accepted a bid of $23,570 from the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank for a one-tenth acre vacant lot on Webquish Avenue.
Selectmen also accepted a bid of $14,000 from the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation for a lot of less than one-tenth acre on 22nd Street North.
Selectmen rejected a bid of $5,750 from the Paatel Kamiesh Trust and J&K Realty for a lot of less than one-tenth acre on 14th Street North because it did not meet the minimum advertised price.
