City considers options for new telecom rules

City Attorney Mark Hughes handed the Sundance Council a lengthy sample ordinance at Wednesday’s meeting that would give the city some control over a new rule that could allow cell phone companies to place equipment in public rights-of-way.

“The Federal Communications Commission adopted some new regulations regarding cell towers and things like that,” Hughes said.

“I don’t know that we’ve had any call for it since we’ve been a municipality but we probably should adopt something – I just don’t know that we want to adopt what they’ve recommended.”

The recommended ordinance was drafted on behalf of the Wyoming Association of Municipalities, Hughes said, describing it as “fairly complicated”. It responds to the new regulations, which would allow communications companies to sidestep the need to purchase land or make an agreement and simply place their towers and other small pieces of equipment in public rights-of way.

“The concern is that, the way it’s presented to the legislature, it gives them the right to say, ‘we’re going to mount an antenna on your water tower and you have no say in the matter’,” said Mayor Paul Brooks.

The federal regulations are probably applicable to every municipality in the country where there exists a right-of-way, Hughes told the council.

“What they’re trying to do is lower their costs,” he said.

If notified of a company’s intention to install a piece of equipment, he continued, the only recourse available would be to say that the company was not in compliance. Obviously, this could only be done if the company really hadn’t complied with the regulations.

“You have the right to charge them a fee and before you could charge them whatever you wanted. Now, you’re limited on what you can charge them,” said Hughes.

“It gives small communications facilities the right to do a lot more than you anticipate.”

Hughes asked the council to study the sample ordinance so that the issue can be discussed in more detail at next month’s regular meeting. The regulations come into effect in mid-January, he said.

At Wednesday’s regular meeting, the council also passed an ordinance to formalize changes to user rates for city utilities. Council Member Joe Wilson asked if anything had been heard from Moorcroft regarding the possibility of the town landfill opening once again to outside users.

Wilson had been reluctant at December’s meeting to pass the rate changes until the city had an answer to this question. Brooks responded on Wednesday that he has been informed by the DEQ that Moorcroft may indeed be granted permission for a vertical expansion by the middle of 2019.

Clerk Treasurer Kathy Lenz reported on progress at Old Stoney, telling the council that the HVAC system has been installed and there are now only a few feet left to dig down for the elevator shaft, which means the contractors expect to be pouring the first concrete in the next week or so.

Lenz also reported that a grant application has been submitted to the Land and Water Conservation Fund to begin renovating Central Park and the city is waiting to hear the results.

Karla Greaser of Trihydro reported on current projects, stating that geotech work has been completed and the final report imminent for the new water tank in the canyon area. The walking path project is also in the closeout stages, she said, and drawings have been submitted to the city as a record of what was built.

A work order was passed during the meeting to continue Trihydro’s city engineering services through 2019 at the current monthly rate.

Mayor Brooks told the council that nothing has changed over the last month with regards to his project to bring natural gas to Sundance. However, he said, a meeting with PRECorp and representatives from a power cooperative operating in Jackson Hole, which provides gas in several communities, will be held on January 16 to investigate feasibility.

Josh Kemmerer visited the council to discuss his building permit request, which would allow him to put a small addition onto his house. The project would require a six-foot variance, which the Land Use Planning Committee had not recommended; Brooks asked the council to visit the street to evaluate the potential impact on Kemmerer’s neighbors before acting on the request.

In departmental reports, Police Chief Marty Noonan reported 35 calls in December and 431 for the year of 2018, while Public Works Director Mac Erickson stated that December was a smooth month mostly focused on snow removal.