County jolted by rent bill for Steptoe Butte tower site

How much is the cap of Steptoe Butte worth?

County officials are currently negotiating with the state Parks Department to figure that out.

Whitman County and local fire districts own emergency communications repeaters posted on communications towers on the butte.

The parks department believes locating that equipment on the top of the butte is worth $61,145 per year, but local officials are pressing for a discount.

“Even though it might be a prime piece of real estate, I don’t think it should bring the same high rates as something in downtown Seattle,” said State Rep. Joe Schmick, R-Colfax.

County Prosecutor Denis Tracy is negotiating with the parks department.

“We should all be working for the benefit of our citizens,” said Tracy. “I’m very hopeful that the parks department will agree to that principle and we can come to an agreement.”

Repeaters owned by the sheriff’s office, engineer’s office and fire districts 7 and 11 are mounted on towers owned and maintained by TransCanada Pipeline Company and Rural Cellular Corporation.

“If we just moved the tower down the hill and raised it up to its existing height and put a sign on it that said ‘we hate state parks,’ would that work?” asked Commissioner Michael Largent in a commission meeting last week.

In early 2007 state parks officials announced it would begin charging public entities rent for infrastructure on land owned by the department.

The 2007 announcement prompted a flood of representatives from agencies across Washington’s east side at a state parks commission meeting in Pullman that June.

Parks commissioners did not erase the rental fees, but said they would count services like fire and police protection as in-kind payment for rent.

“That was the last we heard of it. Until parks sent a letter to the county saying we need to get something in writing, suggesting the value of services might be as high as $60,000,” said Tracy.

“This seems to be an annual event. Every year they say we’re going to raise these rents and every year we have to fight them off,” said Schmick. “We’re supposed to all be in this together. Why raise rates on people that need it the most?”

The parks department hired a pair of independent appraisers to assess appropriate rates for towers on state-owned land, according to spokesperson Linda Burnett.

Burnett explained the parks department has a tiered rate structure it charges for renting public land.

Whitman County and Fire District 11 pay under the local government fee schedule, which includes discounted rates, determined based on the amount of public benefit from facilities.

The $60,000 rent fee did not include that discounted rate.

In e-mail correspondence obtained by the Gazette, Lynn Harmon, lease program manager for the parks department, told Mark Storey, county public works director, the agency would consider a $19,000 reduction for services provide by the local agencies.

Harmon noted Sheriff Brett Myers received a letter from parks on Jan. 31 2008, saying rent is $6,000 per year.

However, a summer 2008 appraisal, requested by “numerous tenants” and paid by parks, came up with $13,295 for Sheriff and Fire District 7.

That appraisal put a value of $30,151 for a Fire District 11 repeater and $17,699 for the county engineers office’s repeater.

Harmon said the parks department would “seriously consider” the $19,000 in-kind discount for services provided, though left that discount open.

Harmon noted the county road department does not work on the butte road and the sheriff does not patrol the butte.