Following up on a request by several residents, Clarendon Hills has hired a firm to provide communication and lobbying services regarding small cell wireless concerns in the village.
Clarendon Hills is using the term “small cell wireless facilities” to include antennas, equipment enclosures, mounting brackets and hardware. The structures are all part of the infrastructure required for 5G technology. The digital cell networks are expected to become much more commonplace in the coming years.
About 20 residents attended a Feb. 3 Village Board meeting to urge officials to do as much as possible to regulate the small cell wireless facilities that are very likely coming to the village.
Clarendon Hills’ commitment to the firm it hired, Strategia, the same company that Hinsdale and Western Springs have hired, is minimal at this point.
The agreement requires payment of $250 an hour only when services are requested, as opposed to an ongoing deal with a stipend, and the agreement ends March 31.
“We have someone available if needed and are not spending money up front for services not needed,” Village Manager Kevin Barr said. “It’s good to have someone on board who can communicate for us.”
Village Board member Carol Jorissen had the same take.
“This allows us to not make a huge financial commitment, but still be in the game a little bit,” she said.
Village President Len Austin said he was impressed after meeting with Strategia Chief Executive Officer Lissa Druss with the level of contacts she has with utilities and the state legislature.
Barr said he doesn’t yet know specifically how Druss will work with the village.
“There still are a lot of questions with this entire issue of small cell wireless,” he said. “The idea is that when things occur, if things occur, we have someone. And we are working with Hinsdale and Western Springs on a common interest of having more local control.”
Along with board members weighing in Tuesday on the hiring of Strategia, they unanimously adopted two resolutions related to small cell wireless regulation.
The first supports legislation that has been introduced in the U.S. Senate that would seek to help restore local government control of rights-of-way.
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The second resolution urges an amendment of the Illinois Small Wireless Facility Deployment Act that would return control of local rights-of-way to local municipalities or repeal the act, which basically states that a municipality cannot regulate the installation or placement of small wireless facilities in a municipal right-of-way that do not exceed 10 feet in additional height on an existing pole or that do not exceed 45 feet in height for any new support structure.