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Last month Milestone had the pleasure of exhibiting at the Virginia Association of Counties (VACo) annual convention and at the Virginia School Boards Association (VSBA) annual convention. Milestone currently partners with both organizations to bring revenue sharing opportunities to their members.
The VACo conference was held at the Homestead in Hot Springs, VA. Milestone sponsored the event’s hotel key cards (pictured right).
At the VSBA conference at the Williamsburg Lodge in Williamsburg, VA, Milestone hosted a “R_U_Social?” booth to help convention goers sign up for social media accounts. A lucky raffle winner, took home an iPad for “liking” the Milestone Communications and VSBA facebook pages. Milestone is looking forward to continuing to participate in both conventions next year.
Milestone was invited to host panel discussion on the benefits and the challenges associated with wireless infrastructure programs on school land at the Virginia School Boards Association’s annual conference last month in Williamsburg, VA.
The panel consisted of Fairfax County School Board Member Stuart Gibson, Fairfax County Public School’s Director of Administrative Services, Lee Ann Pender and South Lakes High School Principal, Bruce Butler.
Milestone has been developing and managing wireless infrastructure facilities on FCPS land for over 10 years and generates over a $1 million in recurring revenue for the school system.
School Board Member Stuart Gibson discussed the political risks associated with a tower program. He said Milestone does minimizes political risks by being transparent and providing factual information to the community during the zoning approval process.
Principal Bruce Butler talked about the “invaluable benefits" from the revenue tower brings to his school.
“We decided to hire a private company because we didn’t have the expertise or the staff time to run the program in house,” said Lee Ann Pender.
Milestone will be hosting a similar panel at the National School Boards Association Convention next April in Boston.
Milestone gained approval for a 125’ light pole replacement wireless pole at the Herndon Middle School in the Town of Herndon, located in Fairfax County.
The application was approved 6-1 by the Town Council. The Herndon Architectural Review Board unanimously approved the tower last month.
”I agree with moving forward. I think this is just the way of the future,” said Town Council Member, Lisa Merkel, during the public hearing.
Milestone filed the application after successfully gaining the approval for a zoning ordinance amendment, which allows for the construction of new wireless facilities on public land.
The proposed tower will enhance wireless coverage for AT&T customers and has capacity for three additional carriers.
“It’s about moving Herndon forward in economic development. Who would want to live in a town or operate a business (in a town) that can’t get good wireless,” said Barbara Glakis, a Town of Herndon resident who testified at the hearing in support of the application. Tower construction is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2011.
Milestone Communications is pleased to announce that it has executed a Master Lease Agreement with the Government of Frederick County, MD, adding over 100 new locations where wireless towers can be built. This will be Milestone’s 15th partnership in the metro Washington region. Milestone has over 900 locations where towers can be developed in MD, VA and SC.
The new Frederick sites include County parks, libraries, police and fire stations and, 12 water tanks located throughout the county.
“What makes these locations attractive to our wireless customers is that towers are an “allowable use” on many of the government locations under the zoning regulations,” stated Len Forkas, Milestone’s President. “This feature cuts in half the normal time to deliver a new tower with less risk for our customers.”
The agreement was approved by the Frederick County Board of Supervisors last month. “Using government assets to help create revenue for local governments is a no brainer,” said former County Executive for Montgomery County, Doug Duncan.
Frederick is one of the fastest growing municipalities in Maryland and the potential to enhance wireless infrastructure is significant, since a large area of the county has sub par wireless coverage.
