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Committee advances MOU allowing county use of city pole locations for county Wi‑Fi project
Summary
The committee voted to place a memorandum of understanding on the Oct. 7 legislative agenda that would let the county use city pole placements and priority locations on utility poles (GameWell locations) to deploy Wi‑Fi nodes; technical consultants said power upgrades and FirstEnergy approvals are part of the plan.
The committee voted to place a resolution authorizing an agreement with York County for Wi‑Fi infrastructure on the Oct. 7 legislative agenda.
Business Administrator (identified in the meeting as Sister Flowers) explained the county’s project will place Wi‑Fi access points across the city and has requested use of some city pole locations and the city’s priority placement on telephone poles where the older GameWell alarm wiring is located. “We're allowing them to use our priority placement on the telephone pole, for their Wi‑Fi project,” Flowers said, adding the city does not own the wood poles (FirstEnergy does) but does control priority placement for the obsolete GameWell wiring.
John Dolmetsch, identified in the meeting as an engineer with Yfinium (the technical consultant on the county project), told council the vendor has been working with FirstEnergy and the city and that the team is resurveying poles to identify locations, prioritizing poles that contain the defunct GameWell system. Dolmetsch said testing has started on 20 traffic poles and that the county is paying for power upgrades on traffic poles where Wi‑Fi hardware will be installed; those upgrades reduce the cost burden on other projects that might need pole power.
Flowers said the county is expected to cover operating costs initially (she cited the county handling first three years of operating costs) and that permits the city would require (building or electrical permits, if any) would be part of the MOU process; she clarified that the MOU is intended to avoid permitting delays once the county is ready to install equipment.
Council members asked about the final map of pole locations and whether poles near schools are included; Dolmetsch said pole locations are still somewhat fluid as the consultant has resurveyed much of the system and is about 75% complete on pole surveys. He said the goal is to use existing GameWell locations where possible to minimize additional space on poles and ease FirstEnergy approvals.
After questions and public comment the committee moved, seconded and approved placement of the resolution on the Oct. 7 legislative agenda.
