Clear Lake City Council votes to move ahead with projects

    Monday night’s Clear Lake City Council meeting dealt primarily with three issues:  the Storm Water Quality Improvement Project, the New Water Tower Improvement Project and a lease agreement between the city and CL Tel regarding wireless service.
    The council voted unanimously to move ahead with the Storm Water Quality Improvement Project.  At its Oct. 15 meeting the council awarded the contract for the project to Rognes Brothers Excavating of Lake Mills, Iowa, in the amount of $191,948.75.  This amount represents one-third of the total project cost.  The remaining two-thirds will come from the Hanson Foundation and CLEAR Project.
    The project includes all labor, materials and equipment necessary to construct storm water treatment facilities at three separate locations.  These locations are:  North Shore Drive, east of Clark Road; North Shore Drive and 18th St. and South 3rd St., north of 25th Ave. South.
    Work for all underground locations is to be completed no later than December 31, 2007.
    At its regular meeting on Sept. 17, the council awarded the contract for the water tower (#4) to Landmark of Fort Worth, Texas in the amount of $1,974,000.00.  The bid was 7.6 percent higher than the engineer’s estimate.  Because of this higher than expected bid, city officials and the project engineer met with the vice-president of Landmark on Oct. 3 to discuss potential deductions or credits.  Since then Landmark has responded with possible changes which could result in lower costs concerning this project.  These changes would have to be approved by the council with a “change order” at upcoming council meetings.  In the meantime, the council voted unanimously on Monday night to move ahead with a resolution approving the contract with Landmark for the water tower.  If everything moves ahead as scheduled, work on the water tower could begin as soon as April 2008.
    The council also gave their consent to a resolution that approves the terms and conditions of a lease agreement for wireless services between the city and CL Tel Wireless, Inc. for use of a portion on the city’s water towers and ground space (related story follows).
Three new cell sites planned for the area
    CL Tel will soon begin construction of three new cell sites in Clear Lake and Ventura, as it launches its partnership with the i wireless network.
    The Clear Lake City Council approved CL Tel’s request at their meeting on Monday night
to lease antenna space on three city water towers. The build-out on the city’s three water towers is scheduled for completion during the first quarter of 2008 and will ensure complete cellular coverage and services throughout Clear Lake and Ventura.
“We are very excited to be able to offer wireless phone service that will have unsurpassed coverage within Clear Lake and Ventura, as well as complete national coverage through the i wireless affiliation with T-Mobile,” said CL Tel General Manager Tom Lovell. “In a survey conducted about one and a half years ago, the majority of our customers wanted us to provide our own wireless service. At that time, we were affiliated with Midwest Wireless. When Alltel purchased Midwest Wireless this summer, we began looking for a company with that strong regional anchor and the nationwide coverage.”
Lovell said that i wireless provides the blend they were looking for - national coverage, along with the innovative technology, competitive plans and community-based customer service.
Monday night’s Clear Lake City Council meeting dealt primarily with three issues: the Storm Water Quality Improvement Project, the New Water Tower Improvement Project and a lease agreement between the city and CL Tel regarding wireless service.
The council voted unanimously to move ahead with the Storm Water Quality Improvement Project. At its Oct. 15 meeting the council awarded the contract for the project to Rognes Brothers Excavating of Lake Mills, Iowa, in the amount of $191,948.75. This amount represents one-third of the total project cost. The remaining two-thirds will come from the Hanson Foundation and CLEAR Project.
The project includes all labor, materials and equipment necessary to construct storm water treatment facilities at three separate locations. These locations are: North Shore Drive, east of Clark Road; North Shore Drive and 18th St. and South 3rd St., north of 25th Ave. South.
Work for all underground locations is to be completed no later than December 31, 2007.
At its regular meeting on Sept. 17, the council awarded the contract for the water tower (#4) to Landmark of Fort Worth, Texas in the amount of $1,974,000.00. The bid was 7.6 percent higher than the engineer’s estimate. Because of this higher than expected bid, city officials and the project engineer met with the vice-president of Landmark on Oct. 3 to discuss potential deductions or credits. Since then Landmark has responded with possible changes which could result in lower costs concerning this project. These changes would have to be approved by the council with a “change order” at upcoming council meetings. In the meantime, the council voted unanimously on Monday night to move ahead with a resolution approving the contract with Landmark for the water tower. If everything moves ahead as scheduled, work on the water tower could begin as soon as April 2008.
The council also gave their consent to a resolution that approves the terms and conditions of a lease agreement for wireless services between the city and CL Tel Wireless, Inc. for use of a portion on the city’s water towers and ground space (related story follows).
Three new cell sites planned for the area
CL Tel will soon begin construction of three new cell sites in Clear Lake and Ventura, as it launches its partnership with the i wireless network.
The Clear Lake City Council approved CL Tel’s request at their meeting on Monday nigh “i wireless graded out among the top of the providers and their customer service ranked near the top of cellular providers in the area,” said Lovell.
Founded in 1997, i wireless is headquartered in Urbandale, Iowa — the only Iowa-based wireless telecommunications provider. In partnership with Iowa Network Services (a consortium of about 150 Iowa Independent Telephone Companies) and T-Mobile USA (a Deutsche Telekom Company), i wireless provides automatic connection to the world’s largest wireless voice and data network.
“i wireless is very excited to be in a partnership with CL Tel,” said Michael Haskins, i wireless CEO/COO. “Residents of Clear Lake are fortunate to have CL Tel bring their land line expertise and quality customer service to the wireless market,” Haskins said. “Since 2005, i wireless has added 197 cell sites across Iowa and Illinois, and with plans for another 115 in 2007, our customers will experience the best regional coverage available anywhere. Plus, our partnerships with T-Mobile, Cingular, and other wireless carriers, give our customers the best nationwide coverage on the nation’s most advanced network.”
CL Tel, in partnership with other independent telephone companies and CommNet Cellular, deployed the first cellular service in North Iowa. CL Tel is a complete communications provider with high speed Internet, local and long distance phone service, digital cable television CLvision, the eStore and wireless services.