The city of

Senoia could soon be seeing revenue from an unexpected

source - its water towers.

During

Monday night's Senoia City Council meeting, the council

heard a presentation from Malcom Jackson, representing

Utility Services Inc.

The company

currently performs maintenance on the city's water towers

and is looking to expand its revenue stream.

Jackson

explained his company is seeking contracts from

municipalities to erect cellular towers on top of water

towers.

Cities

would receive 70 percent of the rental fees from the

telephone companies, while Utility Services would receive

30 percent.

With many

towns denying any more cell towers to be built, Jackson

said the telephone companies are looking at alternatives

to find more locations to place towers.

Currently,

there are about 50,000 towers in the country, but Jackson

said more than 100,000 will be needed in the next few

years because of the switch from analog phones to digital

phones.

If cities

agree to let the phone companies put the antennas on the

towers, the revenue stream could be staggering. Jackson

said a tower in Hilton Head, S.C. is currently generating

$250,000 a year in revenues from renting out to six

cellular companies.

Typically,

a city can expect to receive between $9,000 and $36,000 a

year from each company that locates on the tower.

Police

Chief Ben Thomas wondered whether the utility company

would also place his department's radio antenna on the

tower.

Jackson

agreed to, and said his company would make sure that any

cellular towers would not interfere with any of the

police band broadcasts.

"They

can always change their frequency," he said.

While

Jackson could not guarantee that a company would want to

locate on the tower immediately, he said the city's

towers are in a good location and would definitely garner

interest in the next two years.

Councilman

Kyle Frank enthusiastically supported the idea.

"It's

free money," he said.

Jackson

said the city's only responsibility would be in

maintaining the grounds around the towers so that repair

people would not have a problem in getting to the towers.

Mayor Joan

Trammell thought the idea was good, but said she wants to

study the proposal a little further. She asked Jackson to

come back to the Sept. 13 meeting for a decision.