By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — Since Lumen Technologies/CenturyLink does not want to work with Dunn County on conveying utility rights for the county Highway H project, the Dunn County Highway Committee has authorized using the condemnation process.
Corre Inc. has been working on right-of-way acquisition for the county Highway H project that will run from state Highway 29 north of Elk Mound to county Highway M for which construction is budgeted this year, said Dustin Binder, interim highway commissioner, at a special meeting of the Dunn County Highway Committee January 27.
“We have come to a hurdle with one particular utility company that has delayed the project,” he said.
Lumen Technologies/CenturyLink is not releasing the company’s rights to the utility easements if Dunn County must purchase right-of-way with utility conflicts, Binder said.
The options are that Dunn County could wait and delay the project and see what happens with Wisconsin Department of Transportation lawyers and CenturyLink lawyers, he said.
WisDOT attorneys would be involved because the county Highway H project is partially funded with money from the state Department of Transportation, Binder noted.
Another option is to use the condemnation process for Lumen Technologies/CenturyLink right-of-way, he said.
After talking with WisDOT staff, if lawyers are involved, it will take a long time to resolve the issue, Binder said.
“Personally, I do not want to delay the project,” he said.
If the Highway H project is delayed until 2023, the 2023 budget is already devoted to the county Highway B project, Binder said.
Binder said he is recommending using the condemnation process so the Highway H project is not delayed and that WisDOT is recommending condemnation as well.
According to online sources, CenturyLink changed the company’s name to Lumen Technologies in 2020 to focus on Internet connectivity for businesses and that the CenturyLink brand is being used for residential services.
Another online source states that Lumen Technologies sold CenturyLink to Apollo Global Management in August of this past year and that the sale includes all of Lumen’s local exchanges in 20 states.
Corre Inc.
Megan Munden of Corre Inc. works in the company’s real estate department to clear real estate and to clear the title to the real estate.
Part of clearing the title is to have utilities release the rights in those areas, she said.
“The utility is not working with us on releasing those rights,” Munden said.
Usually utility companies are willing to work with municipalities on road projects, so the condemnation process is not used very often, she said.
The first step is appraising the property and sending an offer to the utility company, which then has 60 days to accept the offer or get their own appraisal. The 60 days is a statutory requirement, Munden said.
If the offer was sent to CenturyLink on February 14, the company would have until April 18 to consider the offer or obtain their own appraisal. Then on April 19, the condemnation process could begin, and Corre Inc. would send a jurisdictional offer to CenturyLink, which would then have 20 days to consider the jurisdictional offer, she said.
After 20 days, also a statutory requirement, Corre Inc. could issue a check, record the award of damages, and then Dunn County would have clear title to the property, Munden said.
It is a tight timeframe, and when the condemnation process is used, the utility company loses certain rights, she said.
How much?
How big an area does this involve? asked Joe Hartung, county board member from Elmwood and a member of the highway committee.
CenturyLink has many easements that pretty much run the entire length of the project, Munden said.
Because the CenturyLink easements cover the whole project, it is not an option to start the highway construction project on one end, and then by the time the CenturyLink easement is reached, the utility rights would have been released, she said.
Why?
Charles Maves, county board supervisor from Boyceville and a member of the highway committee, asked why Lumen Technologies/CenturyLink was fighting Dunn County on the utility easements.
“We are trying to understand that ourselves,” Munden said.
The explanation “that’s the best we can come up with” — is when CenturyLink became Lumen Technologies, the local department that focused on Wisconsin utilities was shifted to a nationwide department, she said.
“I think when they set up that department, they were not quite realizing everything that goes into it,” Munden said.
The nationwide department deals with multiple states with different laws because utility laws vary from state to state, she said.
“They are getting mixed up in the processes,” Munden said.
Kelly McCullough, county board supervisor from Menomonie and chair of the highway committee, asked whether Corre Inc. simply was not hearing anything back from Lumen Technologies.
Lumen/CenturyLink takes a long time to get back to Corre Inc. when they are contacted, and then when meetings are scheduled, the meetings end up being cancelled, Munden said.
There are three types of documents needed for a project like this: quit claim deeds, conveyance of rights and temporary construction easements, she said.
The Highway H project uses all three, but Lumen/CenturyLink representatives were refusing to sign the quit claim deed and said they would only sign the conveyance of rights or the temporary construction easements, Munden said.
Lumen/CenturyLink also has different fees for processing documents in different areas of the state, she said.
Corre Inc. cannot provide fees for processing documents, Munden said.
“They don’t have a good tailored team on their end that that knows the Wisconsin laws on utilities,” she said.
The problems with Lumen Technologies/CenturyLink is a statewide concern, Binder noted.
The Dunn County Highway Committee unanimously approved moving forward with a resolution authorizing the condemnation process for Lumen Technologies right-of-way easements along the county Highway H road project.
