Dupage Policy Journal

At their April 24 board meeting, village officials from Roselle heard a discussion from village manager Jason Bielawisk on a potential agreement with AT&T. 

AT&T was interested in installing a cell tower on top of the water tower at the Roselle Metro train station in Roselle. The village staff had collected information on what the partnership might look like and wanted to see if the board was interested, not interested, or needed more information before making any decisions.

“So we're seeking the direction right now,” Bielawisk said. “The water tower at the metro train station does not have any wireless communication equipment on it. AT&T approached the village and presented us with a lot of documents. And I have, and staff have, only really been in conversations with them around kind of the primary economic terms of it and wanted to now have a touch point with the board to even see if it's something you're interested in doing. We did negotiate them up pretty substantially on the monthly rent at least.”

The board uploaded a livestream of its public meeting to the village’s YouTube channel.

The village does have one other lease for a cell tower, providing a lease to T- Mobile for similar equipment at the water tower located on Gary Avenue south of Central Avenue. This lease is $4,000 a month and increases by 3% each year on the terms of their agreement. Bielawski shared that AT&T was interested in a five-year lease which would automatically renew each five-year term unless one of the parties steps in.

Bielawski also shared that AT&T was “willing or have agreed to provide a one-time maintenance payment of $12,000, which is in lieu of reinstalling the existing bicycle racks and shelter,” as they would replace the current location of the bike rack with its generator equipment. This was amenable to the village as “having racks closer to the train station may be more desirable. Certainly getting them closer to video surveillance is desirable by the police department.”

The cell tower would be for improved 5G service for AT&T and associated users. It would hopefully eliminate some of the dead zones in town that residents experience. The board was in favor of negotiating this agreement with AT&T, and did encourage Bielawski to increase the yearly rate increase, which AT&T had proposed at 1% to somewhere between 2-3% at least. The board did give their approval to move ahead with negotiations as they are interested in the partnership. Any construction or changes would happen in the spring or summer of 2024.

In other business, the board also discussed paying $1.3 million in bills, and it discussed a resolution that allows the mayor to pay $114,000 to V3 Wetland Restoration, LLC, and $117,000 toward wetland mitigation credits for Rodenburg Road improvements.

The board will meet again at 7 p.m. on Monday at the Village Hall at 31 South Prospect St.