COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – The Branch County Road Commission’s outgoing manager says Senate Bill 637 which recently cleared the Michigan House’s Energy Policy Committee is bad legislation.
The bill has moved onto the full House but Trent Arver says in a guest editorial the bill would divert tax-payer dollars from Michigan’s roads to subsidize multi-billion-dollar telecommunications companies.
Arver says the bill would restrict the fee that road agencies could charge telecom companies for locating small-cell wireless equipment on a road agency’s traffic-signal poles to $20 annually which he says would not come close to covering their costs to manage the facility.
He adds the bill would also prohibit road agencies from requiring bonds from the telecom companies for the eventual removal and disposal of their equipment.
In addition, Arver says the bill would prevent agencies from negotiating public/private partnerships with the telecom companies.
Arver will step down as Road Commission manager in early January so he can work in his family farming business.
