The Marquette Board of Light and Power (MBLP) is planning a routine replacement of aging power lines along South Lake Street, and neighborhood residents have asked the MBLP to bury the power lines and remove the poles during this project. The MBLP and other utility companies have agreed to relocate their lines, with the MBLP agreeing to pay for removal of all utility poles as long as all utility lines are removed. The Lake Street residents have raised enough funds to cover the cost from MBLP, PFN and Spectrum (the three other entities on the poles). The City currently maintains fiber lines on these poles running to the Marquette Area Wastewater Treatment Facility. If the City keeps the aerial fiber lines, it must assume responsibility of these poles from the MBLP in perpetuity. The cost incurred in the first five years of such ownership would, at a minimum, equal the one-time cost of fiber replacement and burial.

Preliminary plans for future replacement of the entire 11-mile fiber ring has been discussed by City staff and these plans included the line on South Lake Street. If replacement of this section of line is completed this year, it would simply be excluded from the future replacement project.  

City staff received a quote from 906 Technologies - the City's preferred fiber vendor - to bury the fiber along the lake side of South Lake Street and recommends moving forward with this project. The total cost of the project is $46,266.08.