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Cell tower opponents take aim at Miranda, Frank

Posted Nov 10, 2011 by Christian M. Wade

Updated Nov 10, 2011 at 03:51 PM

Tampa City Councilman Charlie Miranda was only one of four members who voted last year to approve the placement of a 150-foot cell tower near the intersection of Henderson Boulevard and Manhattan Avenue.

But now that the cell tower has been built, South Tampa civic leaders who opposed the move are voicing their outrage and training the criticism on the veteran councilman and Stacy Frank, CEO of Collier Enterprises II, the company that constructed the tower.

They’ve hung a massive banner on a private fence adjacent to the tower, that reads: “Thank You Stacy Frank and Charlie Miranda for The TOWERing Eyesore”

Opponents of the tower, including Carrie Grimail, president of the Sunset Park Homeowners Association and Spencer Kass, president of the Virginia Park Homeowners Association, also sent a letter to Mayor Bob Buckhorn urging him to revisit the issue.

“Now that the tower is up, and it is painfully obvious how completely out of scale and out of character it is with the area, we again respectfully request that the City review the variance review process which allowed this tower to be erected with so little concern for public safety, aesthetics and neighborhood concerns,” the Nov. 9 letter read.

Besides Miranda, then-council members Joe Caetano, Gwen Miller and Chairman Tom Scott, voted in favor of the variance request to erect the tower. But Miranda is the only one of the four still on the seven-member council. Cell tower opponents have also alleged that Miranda’s vote was swayed because he had financial dealings with Frank’s company in the past, a charge that he has flatly denied.