Association News |
| Indiana Wildlife Update |
Posted on Aug 17th, 2010
Wow the summer is almost over and we have been very busy. With Fall approaching and with the rush to get all the outdoor activities in before it gets COLD, we will be even more busy.
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| SWAP Interactive Map |
Posted on Jun 16th, 2010
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| Jordan's Place |
Posted on Apr 16th, 2010
Jordan’s place is an Indiana based foster care program. Jordan’s Place has the vision to take collective action to support foster kids and families as they love and care for children. This foster home has touched the lives of over ninety-eight children nationwide since 2005. Their commitment is to accept each youth into Jordan’s Place and provide viable alternatives to meet the special circumstances in every foster child’s life. Jordan’s Place seeks to demonstrate acceptance of every child with no strings attached due to dysfunctional behavior, physical limitation, culture, color, gender, or national origin. Foster Parent’s Terry and Ruth Blackburn believe all children have the right to live in a nurturing, non-abusive environment that supports, educates, and encourages kids to be the best they can be, no matter what their circumstance. It is through their foster home, that they have the ability to demonstrate love to countless of kids and change their lives.
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| Indiana Wildlife Federation |
Posted on Mar 4th, 2010
INDIANA WILDLIFE FEDERATION
The Indiana Wildlife Federation has played a part in conserving Indiana's natural resources for over half a century. As the nonprofit, grass-roots affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation, IWF works to promote the wise use of our renewable resources through educational programs like National Wildlife Week and the Backyard Wildlife Habitat. The IWF works with state agencies and other similar organizations to monitor Indiana's wildlife and habitats, including Hoosier lakes and rivers, air, and soil. They pay particular attention to legislation that affects Indiana's sportsmen and women, wildlife watchers, and conservationists and our state's wildlife and wildlife habitat.
The Indiana Wildlife Federation has been chosen as one of our charities.
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| Indiana Wireless Association Website is launched! |
Posted on Jan 8th, 2010
Welcome to our new website! Please take a few minutes and look around. We want this to be a useful website for you not just to check in for our social events but to see what is happening in our ever-evolving world of wireless. |
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Upcoming Events |
| Golf Outing |
Thursday, September 20th
Save the Date!
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| Christmas / Holiday Event |
Thursday, December 6th
Indiana's first Christmas event!
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Wireless News |
A message to State Wireless Association members from PCIA President & CEO Michael Fitch
We are pleased to inform you that on February 17, the U.S. Congress passed the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012. The legislation is now awaiting President Obama’s signature, which is expected later this week. Section 6409 mandates that “a state or local government may not deny, and shall approve, any eligible facilities request for a modification of an existing wireless tower or base station that does not substantially change the physical dimensions of such tower or base station.” Collocation of new transmission equipment, removal of transmission equipment, or replacement of transmission equipment are “eligible facilities requests.”
Significant victory for the industry
This legislation is an important win for our industry. It will save hundreds of millions of dollars as the industry deploys new technologies without wasteful review of existing wireless infrastructure sites. This will enable better network planning and build-out on existing and new sites. It will produce more capital investment and job growth to keep up with the dramatic increase in wireless use.
What the legislation means for your business
Fewer delays and greater certainty in the siting process will allow much more efficient expansion of the network which will benefit the entire industry. Collocations and modifications will be subject only to administrative review (such as building permits) rather than discretionary zoning and land use review. Resources previously required for collocations or modifications will be freed up to be used for new sites.
Our work continues
This legislation is the result of PCIA’s multi-year advocacy effort—strongly supported by many State Wireless Associations. PCIA will be working with the industry to prepare recommendations that you can give to zoning broads or other officials regarding appropriate process for collocations, replacements and removals—the “eligible facilities requests” covered by the new legislations. We welcome your feedback regarding local process under the new law. Please feel free to contact PCIA’s Government Affairs Team (Jonathan Campbell, Kara Leibin Azocar and D. Zachary Champ) with any questions regarding the legislation or its impact on local process.U.S. Cellular plays the time card after not funding a third RF study
November 17, 2010 - It appears that a federal court may not have the opportunity to address one of the first FCC shot clock cases to be filed after a carrier and a Maine community explore signing a consent agreement.
U.S. Cellular filed a complaint on November 8 in U.S. District Court in Maine, claiming the Albion Planning Board violated the federal Communication Act of 1934 by not acting "within a reasonable time" on their proposal to build a 190-foot tower.
As defined by the FCC's shot clock ruling of November 18, 2009, a town must act within a 150-day window.
U.S. Cellular also claimed that Albion denied their application without written decisions “supported by substantial evidence contained in a written record”.
Citing that the cost of fighting the carrier in federal court would be prohibitive, Albion's three-member Board of Selectmen voted unanimously during a special meeting Monday night to pursue a consent agreement with U.S. Cellular.
Although the inherent legal fees to represent the town was a major concern, as expressed by Second Selectman Marion Foster, it is not known whether the town's officials were concerned that their decision violated the FCC's 150-day time frame to make a decision upon the proposed tower at the edge of a hayfield on Belfast Road.
Richard Trafton, an attorney representing U.S. Cellular, said on Tuesday that U.S. Cellular "is actively working with Albion's Board of Selectmen to fashion an agreement which will permit construction of the proposed telecommunications facility."
A key concern that surfaced during numerous planning board and public hearings was whether U.S. Cellular needed to build its own tower in order to fill its coverage gap, or whether the company could achieve that by co-locating on either of the two existing cell towers in Albion, owned by Stargate.
Albion's zoning ordinance states that co-location is the preferred method.
However, U.S. Cellular submitted an RF study that identified that construction of the new tower was needed.
Their competitor, Stargate, provided a study that disagreed with U.S. Cellular's report. Planning board members said they needed an independent, third party to submit an RF study that the board could rely on. Citing a town ordinance, they asked that U.S. Cellular pay for an independent study by setting up an escrow account with $5,000 to pay for it.
On July 12, the Planning Board unanimously voted to reject the application, citing U.S. Cellular's "refusal to fund the services of an outside consultant." The application then went to Albion's Board of Appeals, which denied the company's appeal of the decision.
Black Diamond Consultants, of Gardiner, represented U.S. Cellular in the application process.
Court vacates ruling against Towerco stating competitor's site could cause cancer
November 12, 2010 - The New Hampshire Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed a $6.7 million verdict against a wireless communications provider, saying its advertising campaign against a competitor was protected as free speech.
Fifth Estate Tower waged the postcard and advertising campaign to defeat a bid by Green Mountain Realty Corporation to install communications towers in Wolfeboro. Wolfeboro voters defeated the proposal in a special town meeting in 2005.
The cards allegedly urged town voters to vote against the two warrant articles because the town did not need "to get better cellular service or emergency services" as it "already (had) existing structures to handle both."
The cards referred to the proposed communications tower as an "eyesore" and unnecessary.
In the months preceding the special town meeting, in addition to sending the postcards, Fifth Estate also ran a series of advertisements, newspaper pieces, radio announcements and mass mailings that included statements that the tower to be erected on Poor Farm Hill would destroy the town's picturesque skyline; for the water tank site alone, Green Mountain would take more than $1 million from town taxpayers; Green Mountain's personal wireless service facilities would cause residents to suffer from cancer, Alzheimer's disease and other serious illnesses; and that the leases would cost taxpayers between $200,000 and $600,000 over their respective terms.
Green Mountain sued, eventually winning the jury verdict against Fifth Estate.
In its unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that Fifth Estate's campaign was political speech and exempt from the state Consumer Protection Act. It rejected Green Mountain's argument that the campaign contained false claims and, therefore, violated the act.
The justices noted that even if Fifth Estate's campaign involved unfair or deceptive practices, the act does not apply because Fifth Estate's conduct occurred in a political setting. Its campaign against Green Mountain Realty, the court wrote, used public media "for the purpose of influencing political decisions of the general electorate."
"The CPA, like the Federal Trade Commission Act, is tailored for the business arena, not the political arena," wrote Senior Associate Justice Linda S. Dalianis, who authored the opinion for the Court
"We assume, without deciding, that Fifth Estate’s conduct constituted an unfair or deceptive practice, within the meaning of the [Consumer Protection Act]," the court wrote. "Nonetheless, we conclude that the [act] does not apply because Fifth Estate’s conduct occurred in a political setting."
The Court also concluded that Fifth Estate's "mere attempts to influence" the passage of the warrant articles does not violate the act, even if, as Green Mountain alleges, Fifth Estate's sole motive was to eliminate Green Mountain as a competitor.
Also, the Court was not persuaded by Green Mountain's assertion that the special town meeting at issue didn't involve the passage or enforcement of laws.
"As Green Mountain acknowledges, the town of Wolfeboro has a town meeting form of government, and "it is well understood that, within the limits of the power of legislation conferred upon it, a town meeting is a legislative body," Dalianis wrote for the court.
At the lower level, the court had instructed jurors that Fifth Tower's claims were commercial in nature and not protected by the First Amendment. Each of the 3,337 postcards mailed by Fifth Tower were counted as individual violations in arriving at the award.
During the election, Fifth Estate prepared and mailed the community's registered voters a postcard purportedly depicting one of the proposed towers, to illustrate its concern that the tower would be an eyesore.
At trial, Green Mountain’s expert testified that the image of the proposed tower was approximately twice the size of an accurate rendering.
Golf Outing a Success!
Send your comments and we'll post them!!
Hey I wanted to thank you for a great event yesterday! It was HOT, but very enjoyable! It was great to see a 1st year event fill up and make money.
Thank you,
Tony Olejnik
Verizon Wireless
Volunteers Needed!
Dear IWA,
We would like to say "Thank You" for our selection as one of the IWA's supported charities.
Please pass to Trevor and the rest of the IWA Board how excited we are to have been selected. The initial donation you folks gave last night will cover one months rent on our warehouse.
We look forward to a long standing relationship with the IWA and its membership.
I am including the fund raising information for the Indy 500. Jordan's Place works all three events (Indy 500, Brickyard 400 and GP-100) at the track running Stand 40 for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Stand 40 is located behind the pit wall Just north of the Pagotta on the inside of the track. Jordan's Place in turn receives 14% of the sales brought in by Stand 40 for staffing the event.
What this means is we need folks on the following days to help us run the Stand May 21, 22, 23, 28 and 30th. The hours are from opening at 6am to close at 6pm. The reality is we need a few to help open and a few to close but the majority of the people to be there between 8am and 4pm. This can be broken into shifts if folks can't come for the whole day. Jordan's Place provides the tickets and parking for each person. Folks can work one or multiple days. We also can do a designated day. Management Recruiter's Indpls is staffing on the 21st, Kohls is staffing on the 22nd. The 23, 28 (Carb Day) or 30th (Race Day) are available. The Carb Day Concert will be performed by ZZ-Top and is free. Your folks can wear their IWA attire or company gear as you would prefer. We also notify the track media and they spot light the group on the Jumbo TV's and PA system at the track. Its a great event plenty of time to see the track and walk the pits meet the drivers and owners and see the museum. Do you think this would be something your group can help us with?
Terry & Ruth Blackburn
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