Four years ago the Hillsborough County School District awarded Collier Enterprises II a contract to lease school properties to wireless carriers. In late 2008, opposition to cell phone towers placed at Coleman Middle School in South Tampa began a movement by parents and concerned citizens, leading to organized protests before the School Board, the Hillsborough County Commission, the Hillsborough Land Zoning Master and, last week, at the Tampa City Council.
The Council voted 4-2 to allow the placement on a South Tampa strip mall off of Henderson Blvd. last Thursday.
Throughout the controversy, school board members have all been steadfast in supporting the contract between the board and Stacy Frank, who runs Collier Enterprises II and is now running for a state house seat in District 57 as a Democrat.
But one board member, Jennifer Faliero, now says she's changing her position on her previous rock solid support for the towers. Faliero told CL on Monday that in the past, she's always considered it a good deal because of the money that Collier pays directly to the school campuses for being able to host a tower. But now she says she's questioning the arrangement, saying, " you look at what it takes to be a nice neighborhood and what you want to look at and view, compared to the money it takes in? I’m not sure that we want to continue to that."
This article appears in Mar 17-23, 2010.