DARIEN, IL – A top Darien official said Monday he was disappointed in a company that lays fiber optic cable to improve internet service.The company told Patch on Wednesday that it made a mistake.At a City Council meeting, Dan Gombac, the city's municipal services director, said he heard earlier in the day that Indiana-based Metronet had sent a mailer to residents about a project to lay cable throughout town."Unfortunately, Metronet had sent out a mailer that was not supposed to have been sent out yet," Go...
DARIEN, IL – A top Darien official said Monday he was disappointed in a company that lays fiber optic cable to improve internet service.
The company told Patch on Wednesday that it made a mistake.
At a City Council meeting, Dan Gombac, the city's municipal services director, said he heard earlier in the day that Indiana-based Metronet had sent a mailer to residents about a project to lay cable throughout town.
"Unfortunately, Metronet had sent out a mailer that was not supposed to have been sent out yet," Gombac told council. "Right now, there are no permits. They have no right to do any work at this point."
Gombac said the city held a meeting with the company about a month and a half ago. Metronet, he said, plans to install the cable in rights of way and utility easements.
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"The real question right now is whether or not they have the right to be within a utility easement," he said. "We staff have been in conversation with legal counsel on Metronet's end and our end, regarding the rights for utility easements."
In an email to Patch, Metronet's Scott Shapiro said the construction team made a mistake and contacted residents before securing an agreement and permit from the city.
"Our construction communications process is designed to prevent confusion. But in this case, we caused it. And we apologized," Shapiro said. "The city has been a great partner, and we look forward to working through this issue so that we can provide Darien residents with access to internet service from Metronet, the fastest ISP in the country (according to PCMag)."
At the council meeting, Gombac said another company, Lumos, is also looking to install cable.
"The staff concern is where are we going to put all this infrastructure and how is it going to be jammed in there and how is it going to be handled whether it's Metronet, Lumos or another potential provider," Gomback said. "So again, I'm disappointed that Metronet had released this."
A franchise agreement for Metronet will be forwarded to the council at some point, he said.
Gombac told the council he had planned to speak about the issue in his report later in the meeting. But he moved it up after resident Joe Myczek questioned the mailer during the public comment period.
In January, Metronet representatives spoke to the Burr Ridge Village Board about plans to install cable in that town.