COMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY AD HOC COMMITTEE

Sub-Committee of Planning & Economic Development

** NOT APPROVED **

February 22, 2010

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Committee Members Present

D. Pullen, M. Healy, M. Johnsen, J. Scott, C. Crandall

Others Present

M. Alger, W. Dibble, D. Fanton, J. Foels, T. Hopkins, A. Lukasiewicz (ECC Technologies), J. Margeson, B. Riehle, F. Sinclair, J. Starks (ECC Technologies, R. Zink (Southern Tier West)

Media Present

B. Quinn – Wellsville Daily Reporter

Communications and Technology Ad Hoc Committee Chairman David Pullen called the meeting to order at 3:15 p.m.

Approval of Minutes

A motion was made by Mr. Johnsen, seconded by Legislator Healy and carried to amend the last sentence in paragraph 5 on page 5 of the February 3, 2010, Communications and Technology Ad Hoc Committee meeting minutes to read Blacksburg, Virginia, rather than Blackberry, Virginia. The minutes were then approved as amended on a motion by Mr. Johnsen, seconded by Legislator Healy and carried.

Southern Tier West (STW) Update

Legislator Pullen introduced STW Executive Director Richard Zink and asked him to provide an update on STW Projects. Mr. Zink stated that Southern Tier West is involved with two projects – a fiber build project, and a wireless project in northern Allegany County. The fiber project has been funded with ARRA money. The ION Corporation out of Albany was the lead agency in New York State, and they received $39 million to construct 850 miles of network including 115 miles from Jamestown to Whitesville, which they anticipate completing by the end of the year. Mr. Zink stated that this project is important for Allegany County because it will bring in competition and redundancy.

Mr. Zink stated that in 2008, STW received $613,000 from a New York State Office of Technology Initiative that Governor Paterson put forward. So far STW has been able to construct two 80-foot self-supporting towers to provide services in and around the Swain Ski Center, which was an important achievement for STW as well as their partnership with Allegany County. The grant will pay for a total of six towers, two have been constructed, and Southern Tier Wireless plans to construct four more towers between Rushford and Swain. Mr. Zink stated that one of the most important things that can be done is to partner with others for space on the towers to keep costs down. Southern Tier Wireless was the private operating partner in this project. The more viable you can make the business, the more you will be able to expand down the road.

Mr. Zink indicated that STW will be applying for funding from the Economic Development Administration under the CTAA (Commerce and Trade Assistance Act) in the amount of $950,000. STW will try to leverage the money they received from New York State to get that grant for projects in Western Chautauqua and Eastern Cattaraugus Counties. They met with BOCES, who they hope to partner more with, last week, and they talked about the need to get broadband to the students so that they can keep up with the rest of the areas that have broadband. STW hopes to be able to apply for additional funding that may help solve some of these issues.

Stimulus Funding

ECC President Joe Starks confirmed that stimulus money cannot be used to fund the same area twice, and because ION has obtained a grant for fiber within a portion of Allegany County, additional applications from Allegany County would not be considered. In addition, middle mile projects now need to be $5 million or greater.

Mr. Dibble asked if there is room to apply under round two stimulus funding for middle mile projects. Mr. Starks said the applications are due in less than three weeks, and you would not get funding because of the ION Project. You could possibly get funding for public safety towers, but you would have to be able to sustain them, and it would be difficult to do that.

Swain Project

Committee member and Grove Supervisor Mike Johnsen distributed copies of a map he printed from the Southern Tier Wireless website showing the towers they have or hope to erect for the $613,000 wireless system. (As previously mentioned, two of the six towers that will be financed by the grant were erected in and around the Swain Ski Center, and the remaining four will be constructed between Swain and Rushford.) Swain was able to obtain internet service more locally from Canaseraga than what the original plan from Rushford would have been. The system is up and running with ten new customers; it’s good service and the users are happy. Mr. Johnsen stated that the whole process only took about two months, and he commended the efforts of STW and Richard Zink for making this a possibility. Mr. Johnsen stated that they talked about dividing their efforts into two areas – middle mile and last mile. There does not appear to be much funding available for the middle mile or fiber throughout the County for a number of reasons. The last mile can be especially important in rural counties because it can provide the services that homes and small businesses need for the short term. It doesn’t need to be tied into a massive system. If we come up with an area that desperately needs coverage, a wireless stand-alone system can be created, and it’s a much quicker way to respond to residents and small businesses. More importantly there is a lot more money available for last mile projects than there is for the middle mile. Mr. Starks stated that there is actually more money available for middle mile projects, but the project size requirements (>$5 million) do not make it feasible for many. Mr. Starks also briefly talked about the benefit of developing these small pockets of service and then moving on to the next area of need. Mr. Starks stated that eventually the middle mile will come back into play because as the wireless pockets become more successful there will be more and more demand.

Other Projects

Mr. Johnsen stated that Swain was quickly identified as an area that desperately needed coverage, and we need to identify the other areas we should be looking at. Mr. Johnsen stated that Wayne Hauley from Southern Tier Wireless would be willing to address our committee and give us his thoughts on how we might make this happen.

Joe Starks stated that the northern part of the County appears to have a great program so Allegany County may want to focus its efforts in the southern part of the County. There may be some funding for these types of last mile projects through the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS).

Jerry Scott stated that he likes to see the big plan, and he wants to know who will design this system. You need to have two ways to get in and out. Right now you only have one way, and if it goes down, everyone on the system will be down. Mr. Johnsen commented that an outage may be the cost of getting it up quickly. Small businesses do not rely on internet service to communicate with a home office. If you gave them a choice to get it today, or wait for a year for a system with a backup, they would want to get it today. There may be some limitations, but it fills a current need. Mr. Zink indicated when the project is completely constructed there will be two backups in place. Mr. Starks stated that diversity in a community level isn’t as significant, but in the long run, you will have to think about public safety towers and the issue of sustainability might be viable for three or four years down the road. You do have to have a long-term plan, but you can sit back and wait.

Mr. Scott expressed concern about repair service and guarantees of time limits to address problems that come up. Mr. Johnsen commented that no companies will guarantee repairs within a certain time frame – it’s all best effort.

William Dibble stated that the Bolivar Country Club and east to Ceres and west to Richburg would be an area that needs coverage. It was noted that some areas that need service are identified in the Assessment, and Mr. Foels and Ms. Grugel should be able to identify where there are concentrations of businesses that do not have service now.

Legislator Pullen asked if there is a revenue stream associated with this? How long will towers and equipment last? Legislator Pullen said he would hate to get this up and running, and have everything end up wearing out or becoming obsolete. How will it all be sustained? Mr. Foels indicated that replacement values can be figured in to continue the system. You may want to invite those that installed the Swain towers as they indicated that it would take about $1 million in equipment to blanket the rest of the County in wireless service. It is relatively inexpensive to cover everyone when we were looking at about $6 million to provide fiber. Technology is only going to get better and less expensive. Mr. Foels said he was struck by how fast and financially feasible it would be to cover the whole County. Mr. Johhsen said there is the capital side which can hopefully be financed with grant funds, and then there is the operational side. If you can get grant money to cover the capital side, you have overcome a huge hurdle, and the system can be turned over to an operator to run, expand and ultimately tie into a larger footprint. Mr. Starks stated that no one has figured out how to make money on wireless service without the support of a grant, and he indicated that we would want to make sure that Southern Tier Wireless has sufficient money to get upgrades and new technology. As long as their business plan identified how they plan to do that, you should be relatively secure. Mr. Starks commented that today you have nothing, and you will get a solution that provides a competitive advantage.

Telephone Service

Legislator Pullen stated that he recently read an excerpt from a law journal where AT&T has asked the FCC if they can discontinue the landline system. Most of the County has dial up service over the plain old telephone service (POTS). We now have to worry about the possibility of the providers discontinuing landline services. Mr. Starks stated that the FCC is not going to let providers drop the end customer. You need to separate voice and internet. There is a requirement that every home phone has access to phone service. It will be a very long time before POTS lines are discontinued unless there is something else in place.

Public Safety Communication

Legislator Sinclair asked if there is a point where the upgrade of our emergency system touches with this program for developing private communication. Mr. Zink indicated that there could be some overlap. Legislator Sinclair stated that from the planning perspective we need to control the number of towers that go up. We should be able to plan joint usage of these towers. Mr. Johnsen said that in Swain it was a condition of the building permit that the towers allow other uses, and those towers can accommodate four other users. Mr. Johnsen commented that he believes we also need to find ways to live with new technologies.

Legislator Pullen asked what upgrades are needed for the public safety towers and the services Allegany County is already involved in. How can we tie these other projects into the projects that will be funded through homeland security. Legislator Healy stated that we would probably want to bring the people in the E-911 Center and Sheriff’s Office that operate the public safety side of this into the conversation. If we received grant money to build a system to connect the public safety towers, would the STW Group take over and operate the system? Mr. Zink said as an LDC, they would subcontract this out as they do not have the expertise in-house to operate and maintain the system. By adding STW, it may add another layer to the County. Mr. Starks stated that if we are only dealing with public safety issues, we may be equipped to handle it in-house, but it’s complicated when it becomes an open access system.

Legislator Healy stated that upgrading and connecting our public safety towers will end up being a County project, but hopefully the towers and equipment could be made available to others to use. Mr. Starks commented that Allegany County should consider partners that can help share the load, and that we might want to see if Southern Tier Wireless can use any of the towers we currently have.

Committee members talked about regulations that may require 800 megahertz spectrum as the FCC is pushing public safety in that direction. Building fiber to the public safety towers may not end up being in the best location down the road. Committee members talked about the fact that the 800 megahertz spectrum does not work well in hilly country.

Moving Forward

Chairman Crandall stated that the committee is talking about four different things – the ION Project, the wireless project, public safety communications, and the project we had originally proposed. We are way off base with the original business plan we had talked about. Perhaps we need an overall comprehensive business plan for each component that incorporates into a larger plan.

Jerry Scott distributed a copy of a newspaper article regarding FCC’s plan to bring high speed internet to all Americans. All grants through the federal government should be tied into the FCC recommendations. Mr. Scott said that we can give internet service to a lot of people with minimal investment, and we should do that, but we also need to be working on a bigger plan. Mr. Starks commented that regardless of what the FCC comes out with, you still have a short term issue to deal with.

Legislator Pullen stated that we are not going to get a middle mile grant. We’ve made a stride with what’s happened in Swain with the help of STW. Legislator Pullen questioned where we might come up with $1 million to extend service throughout the majority of the County. Mr. Starks stated that there is last mile solution money available through the Agricultural Department.

Mr. Johnsen stated that the mission should be to get broadband to as many people as possible as quickly as we can. We should pursue last mile grant money to cover the capital investment, and there are operators willing to take over the system. We should be able to do this at very little cost to the County. The USDA grant match was 15 percent last year. Any grant source is going to require a business plan including a plan of sustainability.

Chairman Crandall stated that we need a business plan or several business plans in place. Mr. Zink stated that whatever business plan is created, it must encompass the operator and maintainer, and they should be brought into the loop as soon as possible. Mr. Starks stated that Southern Tier Wireless could probably give Allegany County a plan, and that ECC would be happy to provide technical advice. Committee members briefly discussed who might be able to put together a business plan that could address the things that need to happen. Mr. Johnsen stated that he would like to keep ECC involved. Chairman Crandall commented that we need to be clear about what role we might want ECC to play and how much that will cost. Mr. Starks also recommended meeting with Southern Tier Wireless to determine what they are capable of providing.

Legislator Pullen recommended moving forward with the following:

1. Approach those that are affiliated with the County, John Foels and Sherry Grugel, and ask them to identify the pockets where we need coverage.

2. Contact the company that constructed the towers and ask them to attend our next meeting.

3. Contact Southern Tier Wireless and ask them to attend our next meeting.

Future Meetings

The next meeting will be held immediately following the Board meeting on Monday, March 8.

Legislator Pullen stated that anyone that claims that they can plan something from start to finish at the outset must be selling something. All you can attempt to do is leave as many options open as you can so that you can respond to a myriad of factors that are beyond our control. We are not where we thought we would be; circumstances have shifted. We hope to continue to gather information, respond appropriately, and not be left behind.

Adjournment

A motion was made by Mr. Scott, seconded by Legislator Healy and carried to adjourn the meeting at 4:43 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Brenda Rigby Riehle, Clerk of the Board