Thursday, September 7, 2017

Q&A with Engineering Director Debra Heiser from the City of St. Louis Park on Small Cell Wireless

During the 2017 legislative session, a new law was enacted that allows small cell wireless equipment to be installed on city-owned infrastructure. As deadlines to comply with the new law approach, you might be wondering what exactly does your city need to do to comply.

Debra Heiser, engineering director with the City of St. Louis Park, talked about how her city worked with wireless providers earlier this year (prior to the new law passing in the legislature) to come to an agreement on placing small cells in the city’s densely populated West End area.

St. Louis Park reached an agreement with a wireless provider on small cell antennas in February. What was St. Louis Park’s process for approaching small cell wireless?
We worked out a master license agreement with Verizon to allow co-location on city owned poles. We worked with them for a year on location, aesthetics, and more. Once the license agreement was reached, Verizon handled all the installation and then they worked with their contractor. The city handled the installation just like anything else going in the right of way—we did monitor the installation, to make sure it matched the agreement, but the installation was 100% Verizon.

How were locations to install this technology chosen in St. Louis Park?
We’ve all been to places or events where we have slow data. As people become more dependent on data and their smart phones, and when there are places where a lot of people are potentially on their phones, there’s a lot of demand for data. So as people become use technology more, wireless providers are noticing holes in their coverage in these busy areas. These small cells are repeaters that help fill those holes in coverage, so densely populated areas are the focus for this technology.

How did the installation process work?
The installation is complete and took two weeks. There wasn’t a lot of disruption to the community, except that there was construction on the street while the installation was happening. For the installation, the company wanted to collocate on some banner poles, so they ordered structural poles to accommodate the equipment, ran fiber optics to the poles, and handled restoring the installation area to what it looked like before the work was done.

What do you think other cities should know as they work to comply with the new provisions?
Have a clear process and expectations with the provider. We had a couple hiccups during the process. An example was with power usage. The provider wanted to use the power that was used to light the poles, but photo cells provide the power on the light poles, so they don’t work during the daylight. That was one thing we tried to anticipate and let the provider know that was the case. Make sure you talk about anything that can happen.

Is there any other advice you’d like to pass on to cities working on their own small cell wireless agreements?
Be proactive. Get your ordinance and your set right now. If you have questions, look at what other cities have done.

Want more background information, details on the new law, and examples from a city that’s already started the small cell installation process? Don’t miss a free webinar hosted by the League on Sept. 12. The live webinar will be available to anyone who wants to view it online. Local government officials and those who are employed by a city can also view the webinar live at the League and discuss ideas and concerns with other local government officials after the webinar. If you can't take part in the live viewing, you can watch a recording of the webinar once it's posted online.