Source: Union-News (Springfield, MA)
Author: RICHARD NADOLSKI
GOSHEN, MA – If the cable television company selected by the town wants to put its reception station here, it will have to meet the price requested for the county-owned tower site.
Selectman Harold Mollison said Hampshire County will not budge from the $6,000-a-year rental fee it is asking for space on the 180-foot tower next to the town’s fire station.
The Amrac Cable Co. of Waltham had asked to rent 10 feet of vertical space upon which to attach a satellite dish that would feed the “head-end” reception station that would lead into the proposed cable system throughout Goshen and Chesterfield.
Barbara Striebert, an Amrac representative, balked at paying the rental fee, saying that the company could buy land and build a tower for $9,000. She said two weeks ago that she was hopeful the county would reduce its charge.
Mollison said recently that those hopes appear to have been dashed.
“They’re not going to get it on the tower. The county does not want to negotiate on the price,” he said.
Mollison said he wants Amrac to build the station in Goshen for the tax dollars it would generate and thinks Amrac can find a suitable location in town where it can put up the tower.
“That’s why I voted for Amrac. I wanted them to put the head-end in Goshen and she agreed to build a head-end in Goshen,” Mollison said, adding that there was land on Chesterfield Road where Amrac may be interested in siting the tower.