The Northwest Herald editorial writer has coined a good term to describe the BMB Communications Management 1,500 foot television and radio broadcast tower:
“…if the 495-foot (existing) tower largely goes unnoticed, there’s little reason to believe that the larger proposed tower will somehow be a life-altering eyesore.”
Maybe the editorial writer’s home faces away from the proposed mega-tower.
That understatement was brought to my attention by a friend of McHenry County Blog today. Otherwise I would have missed it.
The Herald is willing to hear BMB’s presentation.
I would hope so.
In the United States Budget Bureau (way back before its name was changed to the Office of Management and Budget), I was taught to look at both costs and benefits.
Rational people need to do that before they made a decision.
And, everyone does it all the time every time they go shopping.
So far, we know virtually nothing about the decision-making process.
This junior college board has too long a history of withholding information about the sale or lease of college property to private entrepreneurs.
Except for McHenry County Blog’s reporting, starting eleven months ago, not one article appeared anywhere about what will become the new symbol of Crystal Lake until this week.
We know nothing now, except how much BMB Communications Management is willing to pay.
We don’t even know what it will look like.
Since it is not going to be supported by “guyed” wires, it won’t be skinny like the one you now see near MCC.
We don’t know how far away people will be able to see it.
We’ve only seen the lipstick on this pig.
Is this pig like the hogs at the McHenry County Poor Farm that former Valley Hi Nursing Home Administrator Howard Nehlig told me about?
It took me three attempts to figure out what Howard was talking about in 1969 or 1970.
They didn’t have hams.
The reason, it turned out, was because the members of the McHenry County Board’s Poor Farm Committee took the hams from the hogs raised on the farm home in their trunks after committee meetings.
Is the $6 million the only benefit to the community?
I can think of some other potential benefits and I’ll bet others can come up more.
- How about giving MCC the ability to broadcast for nothing in perpetuity from the facility and building MCC an appropriate studio? That might pretty much eliminate the need for new classrooms.
- MCC could become the distance learning source for fifty miles out.
- How about remote-control cameras to monitor traffic?
- How about an observation deck and elevator to create a real tourist attraction for Crystal Lake to go make swallowing what the Herald admits some will consider an “eyesour” easier?
Or, has the decision already been made by both the MCC Board and city officials…without any real knowledge of the project being provided to the public?
Why does the college’s minor league baseball stadium come to mind now?
When the 7 PM McHenry County College Board meeting is held, I hope the board has enough sense not to hold it in the tiny board room. The Conference Center probably would not be filled, but it would give everyone space enough to sit down, as well as give the college the ability to tape the meeting so it could be broadcast on Comcast so many more people can figure out what is involved in this proposal before the college votes on it.
And, maybe the board members and BMB’s John Maguire and his engineer will even be allowed to answer questions from the public.
That would be a pleasant change.
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In the photo shopped image on top, you can see the 495 foot current radio tower to the left of the Eiffel Tower. Thanks for Crystal Lake’s Heck of a Guy blogger Allan Showalter for the ability to put this proposal in perspective.
The small picture of a 1,500 foot television tower on the right hand side of the top of the story is from Daytona Beach, rerprinted with permission from Wireless Estimator.com. If you would like to see time lapse photos of how such a tower is erected, you can do so by clicking here. The alternating colored sections of the tower are each 100 feet.
Saturday: Is national security involved?
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In the photo shopped image on top, you can see the 495 foot current radio tower to the left of the Eiffel Tower. Thanks for Crystal Lake’s Heck of a Guy blogger Allan Showalter for the ability to put this proposal in perspective.
The small picture of a 1,500 foot television tower on the right hand side of the top of the story is from Daytona Beach, rerprinted with permission from Wireless Estimator.com. If you would like to see time lapse photos of how such a tower is erected, you can do so by clicking here. The alternating colored sections of the tower are each 100 feet.