Carbon Monoxide Detectors Required in all Residences

State law and local ordinance require carbon monoxide detectors in all residential occupancies within the city of Aurora. This includes all buildings containing sleeping rooms such as single-family homes, rental properties, apartments, condominiums, town homes, rooming houses and rooming units. Detectors are required within fifteen feet of all sleeping rooms and must be either battery powered, the plug-in variety with a battery back up, or wired into the building’s AC power line with secondary battery back up.

Combined smoke and carbon monoxide detectors may be utilized provided the combined unit emits a sound clearly differentiating the hazard.

There are no exceptions or exemptions.

For a minimal expense, detectors can save lives in cases of emergency. If the property you own is not yet equipped with an approved carbon monoxide detector, one should be installed as quickly as possible.

Questions may be addressed to the city of Aurora’s Department of Neighborhood Standards at (630) 897-4589 or to the Customer Service Division at (630) 264-INFO.

Location: Aurora, Illinois

Contact: , Department of Neighborhood Standards, (630) 897-4589

– Source: City of Aurora Site (2/19/2008)

MetroFi Abandons Plans to Provide Free WiFi to Illinois Cities

Aurora and Naperville to Explore Alternative Wireless Options
On Monday, January 21, 2008, the cities of Aurora and Naperville, Illinois jointly confirmed that MetroFi has abandoned plans to extend free wireless Internet connectivity beyond current service areas. MetroFi provides service in nearly 20% of the city of Aurora, along select areas along Route 59 and in downtown Naperville. MetroFi originally signed contracts in 2006 with both cities promising free wireless throughout the municipalities.

City officials expressed disappointment and frustration over the collapse of the deal, but vowed to continue exploring wireless options for their communities. Aurora’s Chief Information Officer Ted Beck stated, “Staying at the leading edge of technology has risks, and we chose a private, cost-free solution to limit our risk. This is not the outcome we wanted and I expect there will be disappointed people, but I believe the fact we didn’t spend taxpayer dollars is positive.”

Naperville’s Director of Management Services Don Carlsen added, “We are disappointed about MetroFi changing their business model in the midst of our contract for free citywide WiFi. There are many choices in technology today, and part of MetroFi’s attraction was that Naperville residents would receive free WiFi service at no cost.”

Neither city is ready to give up on the idea of citywide WiFi just yet. Officials from Aurora and Naperville have been in discussions about releasing a joint Request for Information to evaluate all the potential citywide WiFi options available in the market today. “Mayor Weisner still believes citywide WiFi would be valuable to our citizens and businesses,” explained Aurora Assistant Chief of Staff Carie Anne Ergo, “but he feels the city needs to review all the options through an open and transparent process before moving forward.” Aurora and Naperville are currently leading an effort to jointly purchase a state of the art interoperable radio system to handle public safety communications needs for more than 1.5 million residents.

Last year, MetroFi changed their business model and announced they would no longer offer free Internet service to new municipal customers unless cities agreed to become anchor tenants on the wireless system and commit to a significant level of spending each year. Shortly thereafter, MetroFi approached both Aurora and Naperville about becoming principal users of a secure public safety network. Under their current contracts, Aurora and Naperville have the option of purchasing additional wireless services, but are not required to do so. After deploying and testing MetroFi’s new 4.9GHz public safety network in pilot areas over a period of months, both cities chose not to purchase additional services.

“Accepting MetroFi’s new proposal doesn’t make economic sense and the procurement must go through a competitive process,” said Naperville’s Telecommunications Manager Dan Voiland, who indicated that it would cost Naperville $3.7 million to build out the network, which would only result in an estimated cost savings of $400,000 over a five year period. Completing Aurora’s network would cost approximately $3.5 million. MetroFi officials have agreed to maintain the current network while officials in both communities explore wireless options.

For more information on MetroFi WiFi services, contact MetroFi at (650) 810-8000.

– Source City of Aurora Site (2/19/2008)