For the purpose of this chapter, the following terms, phrases and words
shall have the meanings given herein:
AUTHORIZED ACTION
Any ordinance or resolution heretofore or hereafter adopted by the
Township which grants any provider access to the Township's public road rights-of-way
for the provision of telecommunications service.
PROVIDER
Any provider of telecommunications service that has been or will
be granted access to the Township's public road rights-of-way pursuant to
any authorizing action.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICE
The offering of telecommunications for a fee directly to the public,
or to such classes of users as to be effectively available directly to the
public, regardless of the facilities used.
TOWNSHIP
The Township of Franklin, County of Somerset, State of New Jersey,
and its government, including the Township Council and its administrative
personnel.
The Township has in the past and may in the future grant certain providers
the nonexclusive right to use the Township's right-of-way for the provision
of telecommunications service. The provisions of this chapter shall apply
to such providers.
The needs of the Township and the public to minimize interruption in
street and sidewalk traffic and public or private business, to avoid congestion,
environmental degradation, undue cost, inconvenience, reduction in property
values, private interests and the like, frustration or burdening of Township
planning for future utility installations and operations, maintenance of current
utilities and general planning for development by the Township, shall be respected
by each provider, and each provider will notify the Township of the location
of any cable or other fixtures permitted to be installed pursuant to the applicable
authorized action prior to such installation.
The consent granted by any authorizing action shall apply to the entirety
of Franklin Township. All questions of municipal boundary location, rights
and interest in property, federal, state, county and/or other governmental
or quasi-governmental rights, privileges and/or interests in real estate shall
be investigated and researched at the provider's expense; procedures necessary
to gather relevant information and to resolve every such question shall be
pursued in the provider's own name; and the Township shall never be under
any obligation to perform investigations or research, conduct or prosecute
proceedings, expend legal fees or pay the charge of engineers, surveyors,
title searchers or others, or otherwise take any steps to define, delineate,
establish or clarify the boundaries or rights of the Township.
All providers shall at all times be subject to full and complete compliance with Chapter
112, Land Development, of the Code of the Township, all other Township ordinances and regulations and all rules, regulations and laws of the applicable jurisdictions as to all aspects of location, operation, and maintenance of the fiber optic cables and fixtures necessary thereto to provide telecommunications service. Any fixture other than wires, cable, underground conduits, terminating equipment and electronics and fiber optic cables shall be subject to the Township's prior written approval before their installation.
No easement, title in fee, leasehold or other interest in real estate,
nor any other interest in property of the Township, is hereby granted to a
provider by any authorizing action.
[Amended 9-14-1999 by Ord. No. 3064]
A. In consideration of the rights and privileges granted
to a provider by the applicable authorizing action, each provider shall pay
to the Township on an annual basis the following fees:
(1) Two hundred dollars per mile of such provider's fiber optic cable
located in the public road rights-of-way within the Township, with a minimum
annual fee of $500.
B. All payments due to the Township hereunder by a provider
shall be made on or before June 1 of each year in which access to the Township's
public road rights-of-way is in effect. Any failure to accurately make the
payment called for on or before October 1 of each said year will result in
the automatic revocation of the nonexclusive franchise granted to such provider
by the applicable authorizing action.
Each provider shall respond when requested to mark out underground lines
within 48 hours of the request.
To secure the faithful performance by each provider of all of its obligations
to the Township, each provider shall deliver to the Township and maintain
in force throughout the duration of the provider's access to the Township's
said rights-of-way a surety bond in the penal sum of not less than $50,000,
conditioned on the faithful performance by such provider of all of its undertakings
pursuant to this chapter and the authorizing action. Said bond must be acceptable
in form and content to the Township Attorney. The bonding company shall be
authorized to do business in the State of New Jersey.
The captions and titles assigned to the sections of this chapter are
for convenience and reference only and are in no way to be construed as defining,
limiting or modifying the scope or intent of the various provisions of this
chapter.
In the event applicable law shall, during the term hereof, modify any
provision of this chapter, this chapter shall be automatically modified to
incorporate the change.
Any violation of the provisions of this chapter shall be punishable as provided in Chapter
1, Article
II, General Penalty.