President's Message - February 2005

Norman Salisbury
President

Dear Fellow Owners:

As you are all aware, we experienced a severe fire last month. The final investigative reports are still not in yet, but the early indications are that the fire originated in our main power service as a result of water that seeped through our structure from the plaza and caused a short in our main power supply. The damage to the structure and property was minimal but there was substantial and expensive damage to nearly all of our electrical systems to the north tower. All of those disruptions have been restored. The main power supply however is still connected with temporary connections. The permanent connection is presently being fabricated and will be shipped in several weeks. There will be at least one additional power outage when it will be installed and we will provide you with advance notice of all future planned outages.

I wish to further inform you that our fire alarm system was also severely damaged by the fire. All of the north tower alarm communications, as well as phone, cable and other electrical, all travel through the fire location and were all destroyed. The high voltages of the electrical arcing also damaged certain control panels of the alarm system that we have recently been attempting to restore. This is also the reason that much of the alarm system in the north tower failed to function properly during and after the fire. It is truly miraculous that the fire disabled our alarm system while at the same time we escaped with no harm, danger, or loss of life or limb. The fire is fortunate in two respects. We escaped with no harm to anyone and we now know a very critical disabling weakness of our alarm system that we will correct immediately.

Another issue that has been mentioned in Board meetings and minutes but which has not addressed in detail is the restoration and waterproofing of our plaza. Our fire has additionally brought the immediate need for waterproofing squarely to our attention and has alerted us of the needs and consequences of properly maintaining all areas of our property. The Board of American Plaza Parking of which American Towers is a member has approved this restoration project for this summer. The timing of the project was difficult because of the need for all of the plaza property owners to get their funding in place and available. This is the year it all came together. The entire project is estimated to exceed 1.5 million dollars of which American Towers share is $450,000. The good news is that these funds are in place and available in our reserve funds and there will be no special assessments. The bad news is that it will severely deplete our reserves. In that regard, the Board is considering an increase of 6 to 10% in our monthly assessment in order to replenish our important capital reserve funds. I encourage all owners to attend the next Board meeting where we will be prepared to discuss this important issue and approve it without delay.

Finally, I wish to extend high praise to the performance of our staff for their performance during and after our fire to assist the authorities and to restore our utilities so quickly. In addition, our owners and residents all responded with patience and understanding in the emergency evacuation and outages of vital services. I thank you all so much. I thank you again for your continued support to your Trustees and management. Despite these disruptions, American Towers is undisputably a fantastic community.

Sincerely,