McMinnville officials will be taking steps to protect downtown decorative poles against a telecommunications bill that appears to be on its way to becoming state law.
House Bill 2279 enacts the Competitive Wireless Broadband Investment, Deployment, and Safety Act of 2018. As written, it would allow AT&T and other cell carriers to place antennas on any pole owned by a local government and replace any pole that cannot be used for the devices. The bill has received minimal resistance as it makes it way though the Tennessee General Assembly.
City officials expressed disproval for the bill and concern for the fate of the decorative poles downtown. A city resolution against the measure was passed last month and submitted to the state.
According to city administrator Bill Brock, he’s contacted an AT&T representative and the city needs to pass a resolution restricting what can be placed downtown.
“He told me we don’t want to force the city to do anything,” said Brock. “If you want to defend yourself, is the best way to put it, pass ordinances to not allow certain things in downtown or maybe anything on any poles. To tell you the truth, the guy with AT&T was very helpful. It really shocked me.”
Brock added, “He told me they aren’t worried about the McMinnvilles of the world. They’re worried about Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville. When people come out of an arena and get on their phones and you can’t get anything. That’s what they are shooting for. Now that doesn’t mean in 20 years they won’t be here in McMinnville.”
Alderman Ben Newman said he spoke to lobbyists and was also told the intent of the bill is to target large metropolitan areas but the bill doesn’t include any such limitation.
“In my discussions with lobbyists that are neutral on this issue, they said that AT&T’s purpose to do this was for going into places like Knoxville and Nashville where there’s a large amount of people in one concentrated area and their cell towers are getting overloaded. That’s their purpose for it, but it doesn’t say that in the bill.”
An ordinance will be written and under consideration by McMinnville officials.
