SP0366
LD 1192
Session - 129th Maine Legislature
 
LR 1131
Item 1
Bill Tracking, Additional Documents Chamber Status

An Act To Establish Municipal Access to Utility Poles Located in Municipal Rights-of-way

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:

Sec. 1. 35-A MRSA §2524  is enacted to read:

§ 2524 Municipal access to poles

Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, for the purpose of safeguarding access to infrastructure essential to public health, safety and welfare, an owner of a shared-use pole and each entity attaching to that pole is responsible for that owner's or entity's own expenses for work, including rearrangement or transfer of existing facilities, replacement of a pole, complete removal of any pole replaced or any other changes required to accommodate a municipality's attaching its facilities to that shared-use pole for any purpose. For the purposes of this section, "municipality" means a town, city, plantation, county, regional council of governments, quasi-municipal corporation or district as defined in Title 30-A, section 2351, regional municipal utility district established according to Title 30-A, section 2203, subsection 9 and corporation wholly or partially owned by a municipality or municipalities.

summary

This bill amends the utilities laws to provide access by municipalities to facilities located in the municipal right-of-way in the interest of public health, safety and welfare. The bill also establishes the preservation of space for municipal attachments to shared-use poles by exempting municipalities from expenses assessed by joint use entities when the attachment is made for any purpose.


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