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Grand Rapids approves joint-use agreement with AT&T to formalize shared utility-pole use
Summary
The city approved a joint-use resolution with AT&T to formalize decades-long shared use of wood utility poles in the right of way and streamline billing and operations.
The Grand Rapids commission approved a joint-use agreement with AT&T to formalize the long-standing practice of sharing wood utility poles in the public right of way.
Ryan Timmer, the city’s new ELC manager, told commissioners the city and AT&T both own poles in the right of way and have for years attached equipment to each other’s infrastructure. "The city has 2,207 poles that we attach on AT&T, and AT&T has 1,086 poles that they attach to the city," Timmer said, adding the agreement will “streamline operation and formalize a long standing cooperative relationship between the city and AT&T.”
A commissioner praised staff and the city attorney’s office for resolving a longstanding administrative burden of tracking reciprocal billing between utilities and said the agreement mirrors earlier arrangements the city made with other providers, such as Consumers Energy (1980).
The motion to adopt the joint-use resolution passed unanimously in committee.
