DARIEN, IL – An Indiana-based company plans to start its project soon to link residents to its fiber optic network, which promises to bring better internet service.
During the project, residents may see workers in their backyards installing the cable, even if some residents don't plan to get the service. The workers would have identification badges and marked vests.
Metronet will do the work in easements – areas in backyards where utilities are allowed to operate.
The project is expected to take a year.
Representatives of Metronet described their project at Monday's Darien City Council meeting.
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Another company, Virginia-based Lumos, hopes to present its plan to provide fiber optic service in the next few weeks, but it would do the work in the right-of-way in front yards, said Dan Gombac, the city's municipal services director.
"This is nothing we can deny," Gombac told the council. "These utilities have the right. It's been vetted through case law, the FCC. We don't have the opportunity to tell them no, unless there were major deficiencies."
Mayor Joseph Marchese suggested the other company, Lumos, may pull out of Darien when it learns Metronet is coming.
Gombac replied, "That's what I'm banking on."
A month ago, Metronet mailed an announcement to residents that it would soon start its Darien work.
That took Darien officials by surprise because the city had not given a permit. The company backed off, saying it made a mistake.
At the council meeting, Ben Ruzick, a Metronet vice president, apologized. The communications group thought the project was further along than it was, he said.
"We have learned from that," he said.
The company hopes to put out a notice soon and then start work.
In January, Metronet representatives spoke to the Burr Ridge Village Board about plans to install cable in that town.