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Lemont board approves fiber license and hires HR Green for plan review and inspection
Summary
The Lemont Village Board approved a master license allowing a fiber provider to build in the village right-of-way and authorized HR Green to perform plan review and construction observation, with the provider to reimburse the village for review hours; work expected to begin in spring.
The Lemont Village Board on Jan. 26 approved a master license agreement with a fiber company and authorized professional services contracts with HR Green to oversee plan review and construction observation for a villagewide fiber build.
Village Administrator George said the agreement — negotiated with Delta Communications LLC doing business as Clearway/Clearwater/Clearwave Fiber (transcript uses multiple variants) — is intended to give residents an option in addition to existing internet operators and will not preclude other providers from operating in town. “Clearway Fiber would like to offer the village residents and business owners an alternative to the current Internet operators,” he said.
The board also approved a professional services agreement with HR Green for plan review, construction observation and utility locating. Ralph said the HR Green work will be billed on a time-and-materials basis and “they'll be reimbursed by Clearwave fiber to the village.” He told trustees that construction will not begin until spring and that installation will proceed in phases depending on existing utilities.
Officials said the license agreement includes provisions to recoup village costs for reviewing incoming plans and to capture sales tax on any new customers who switch providers. Village attorney Mike said provisions in the village's agreements were updated after lessons learned from other nearby builds to avoid problems experienced elsewhere.
The resolutions authorizing the master license and the HR Green professional services contract were approved by roll call.
The board did not provide a timetable for when specific neighborhoods would be served beyond the spring start window; officials said additional agreements to finalize cost recovery arrangements would appear on a future agenda.
