[TowerTalk] Surplus Ttowers

[Jim Lux]

On 8/15/13 10:25 AM, Wilson wrote:
> "It wouldn't surprise me to find that the labor time per transaction is
> in the 20-40 hour range."
>
> I'm thinking those rigs are $30-50K each.
> I'd gladly work 40 hr for even one of them!!
> AND I'd pay a pickup truck ($1-1.50/mile or so) to haul them.
> All if I were in the business, or could deal on one.
> What  deal for Field Day!
> My guess is the demolition is to keep the tower companies from whining
> about the govt dumping stuff.
> Why should they be happy with making money on one tower when they can
> sell two?
> They are certainly beautiful, if one is into machinery!
>


The problem is that YOU don't have the option of spending the time doing 
the paperwork, etc.  It's the taxpayer footing the bill, and these days, 
there is significant resistance to that.

The government, at this scale, tends not to get involved in speculation 
on potential value.  It's more "what will cost us the least from our 
already reduced sequestered budget".

And the cheapest thing to do is to say "take it all as one lot, destroy 
it at your cost, and get it out of our hair".  One transaction, no 
potential liability, etc.

If they were to try and sell it as something functioning, there's a 
whole lot more work involved in establishing a fair price, making sure 
it is offered widely, etc.

I've gone through this process with donating government owned equipment 
to a educational institution (via Stevensen Wydler act) and it is 
decidedly non trivial.


The government is decidedly not like a business. In general, if you had 
a business with all these towers, it's up to you to do the cost benefit 
analysis of parting them out, scrapping, doing it as one lot or 100. 
But the government is subject to a dizzying array of laws and 
regulations, mostly the result of some egregious act in the past and 
congressional ire resulting in a "this will not happen again" regulation.