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An Act To Establish Municipal Access to Utility Poles Located in Municipal Rights-of-way
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  35-A MRSA §2524  is enacted to read:
§ 2524. Municipal access to poles
 
1.  Definitions.     As used in this section, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms have the following meanings.
 
A.  "Make-ready work" means the rearrangement or transfer of existing facilities, replacement of a pole, complete removal of any pole replaced or any other changes required to make space available for an additional attachment to a shared-use pole.
 
B.  "Municipality" means a town, city, plantation, county, regional council of governments, quasi-municipal corporation or district as defined in Title 30-A, section 2351, regional municipal utility district established according to Title 30-A, section 2203, subsection 9 or a corporation wholly or partially owned by an entity specified in this paragraph.
 
C.  "Unserved or underserved area" has the same meaning as in section 9202, subsection 5.
 
2.  Access to poles; make-ready requirements.     Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, for the purpose of safeguarding access to infrastructure essential to public health, safety and welfare, an owner of a shared-use pole and each entity attaching to that pole is responsible for that owner's or entity's own expenses for make-ready work to accommodate a municipality's attaching its facilities to that shared-use pole:
 
A.  For a governmental purpose consistent with the police power of the municipality; or
 
B.  For the purpose of providing broadband service to an unserved or underserved area.
 
Effective 90 days following adjournment of the 129th Legislature, First Regular Session, unless otherwise indicated.