COMMUNICATIONS AND
TECHNOLOGY AD HOC COMMITTEE
February 3, 2010
** NOT APPROVED **
Committee Members Present
D. Pullen, M. Healy, M.
Johnsen, J. Scott
Others Present
M. Alger, W. Dibble, J.
Foels, T. Hopkins, A. Lukasiewicz (ECC
Technologies), J. Margeson, B.
Riehle, J. Starks (ECC
Technologies)
Communications and
Technology Ad Hoc Committee Chairman David Pullen called the
meeting to order at 9:30 a.m.,
and everyone introduced themselves.
Legislator Pullen stated that this committee would be taking over where
the Fiber Optic Ad Hoc Committee left off in 2009.
ECC Technologies Update on
Assessment Study
Andy
Lukasiewicz from ECC Technologies
stated that the County hired ECC
to prepare a Fiber Needs Assessment and Municipal Fiber Cost Modeling Study which
was completed and submitted in October 2009.
One of the purposes of the study was to determine the feasibility of
building an open access fiber network in the County. Mr. Lukasiewicz indicated that he brought
copies of the final document for the committee’s review. Mr. Lukasiewicz stated that to connect all of
the public safety towers as well as the villages and towns, about 217 miles of
fiber at an estimated cost of $8.5 million would be needed. The results of the study indicated that such
a project would not be sustainable in Allegany County. ECC
developed an alternate plan which is also included in the document. The alternate plan calls for building spurs
out into Hornell which should enable us to cover a lot of the businesses and
sustain about 120 miles of fiber at an estimated cost of $4.5 million. Mr. Lukasiewicz briefly touched on other
action going on that might affect Allegany County such as the stimulus package
and the fact that DFT (Dunkirk-Fredonia Telephone) has been working with Southern
Tier West (STW) on a project that
could technically support customers that would normally be used to fund our
project. ECC
Technologies President Joe Starks stated that the STW
Project got funded through ION,
and a lot of the businesses Allegany
County was looking at are
along that corridor, and it would not provide enough business to support two
different systems. Mr. Lukasiewicz
stated that Allegany
County should work
closely with STW to develop a
win-win scenario so that we can work with each other instead of against each
other.
Both
Mr. Starks and Mr. Lukasiewicz stated that the STW/ION Project will bring fiber in along the Southern
Tier which is good for the County as it will provide diversity and
competition. Unfortunately many parts of
the County will still not be covered.
Committee members discussed Swain, noting its lack of
infrastructure. A lot of the northern
part of the County is devoid of infrastructure.
Mr.
Starks noted that the Assessment Study is not for distribution or to be made
public as it contains private financial information from suppliers and
potential users. If Allegany County
wants a report that can be sent or used by the general public, the financial
information can be pulled out.
Project Development and Funding
Mr.
Lukasiewicz stated that the next step is to understand what the County is
looking for and what the County wants to do.
Mr. Starks stated that short of the County needing to put fiber to their
public safety towers, it is going to be very difficult to substantiate grant
dollars. Fiber projects cannot become a
burden to the taxpayer. Mr. Starks
suggested sitting down with ION as
their maps are still loosely defined.
How can we get them to expand their fiber and bring it into the areas we
want?
Mr.
Starks stated that it might behoove Allegany
County to develop a last
mile wireless solution as that type of project would be eligible for funding
through the Ag. Department. Allegany County would not qualify for NTIA because ION
has already received grant funds to build in this area.
Mr.
Starks stated that building a fiber network would not be an option without some
serious funding. Michael Johnsen stated
that we are not in a position to maintain the system even if we found the money
to build it. Allegany County
would not be eligible for any stimulus money for fiber since ION has been funded, but we might be able to secure
funding for last mile solutions.
ION will build a fiber network and provide
service within one mile of that network.
The good news is that we are getting some infrastructure in the
County. Allegany County
will not control it, but by working with ION
and STW, hopefully we can develop
programs that build off their project. Mr.
Starks stated that securing money to build a project may be easier than finding
money to sustain it. Mr. Starks
indicated that it usually costs 6 to 8 percent of the project to sustain a
project on an annual basis, and you do not want that to become a burden to the
taxpayer.
Projects in Other Counties
Michael
Johnsen asked what other surrounding counties are doing. Mr. Starks briefly described the fiber
coverage in some of the surrounding counties, noting that Allegany County
is in a position where they can begin to work on how to solve some of the issues
that have been identified. Wyoming County has a little fiber to support
public safety and bring wireless broadband up to where the windmills are. Wyoming
County needs to bring in
a partner, and perhaps something could be done between the two counties. Mr. Johnsen stated Allegany County
needs to branch out to others.
Service Providers
Jerry Scott stated that it appears
that Allegany County will be covered fairly well east
to west. Everyone is pushing 3G and 4G,
and we need to determine what we want to accomplish. The least expensive way to provide coverage
is wireless. We need to sit down with
major players and see what we can help with so that they will provide service. Mr. Scott indicated that sometimes large
companies will come in an area if businesses and homeowners will sign a
contract committing to use their service for a certain period of time. Mr. Starks noted that Verizon Wireless is one
of the major supporters of these types of projects – they like dark fiber and
the community model. Unfortunately
because of their agreement with Verizon, Verizon Wireless can only go into
areas and use services that are not Verizon territories.
Mr.
Scott mentioned that providers will also bring service in if a company can
create 100 new jobs. William Dibble
commented that District III
companies can’t really expand without high-speed broadband services. There is not coverage in the southern part of
the County.
Mr.
Starks stated that if there is a justification in the County such as needing to
replace microwave between public safety towers, lease line costs getting high,
someone wanting to bring jobs in, etc. those types of justifications give us
the ability to look at the model from a different angle and find out what the
community is willing and able to do and what, as good citizens, we can justify
back. Mr. Starks asserted that they can
put the business case together, but they can’t suggest that we increase taxes.
Mr.
Johnsen stated that their hope in Swain was that when Verizon put the tower in,
they would link it with other things, but they are using microwave. Mr. Starks stated that they are using
microwave because other options are not available. In Livingston
County there is a
significant backbone being built, and it might be possible to tie into another
network. Andy
Lukasiewicz will follow up with Verizon. Mr. Starks remarked that Verizon wants the
fiber, and if they can get it, they will use it. Mr. Johnsen stated that three additional
users will be able to use the towers in Swain.
STW/ION
Project
Mr.
Johnsen stated that we should be talking with Southern Tier West. What incentive is there for STW to help the rest of the County? What access does the community have to their
project and what costs will be involved? STW
has to generate enough revenue to cover losses in other areas.
Mr. Starks stated that he believes
that STW Executive Director
Richard Zink will have little to say about or do with the system that ION is putting in.
ION is for profit, and they
are going to build this project as a for profit company, and they are going to
provide services to those that want it at a certain rate, and then they will
operate it. Mr. Starks mentioned that ION is building right through the middle of
Southern Tier East and Southern Tier Central, and it has cut them right in two,
and they have very little to work with.
We need to determine what ION
will be making available. Mr. Johnsen
stated that he had been under the assumption that STW
was more than just a vehicle for ION
to get the funding for the project. Mr.
Starks said he is not aware of what control STW
will have, and that is for us to figure out along with determining what role
they will play. What STW gets out of this may be greater than what other
regions have ended up with. Allegany County will want to make their voice
heard and sit down at the table so that we get something out of this. Mr. Starks stated this is still very good for
the community.
Legislator Pullen stated that there
will be large swath of the County that will not be able to participate in the
benefits that ION will be bringing
to the County. How can we minimize
that? The goal is to provide more than
we currently are providing. The question
is how we move forward. Mr. Starks
stated that our initial focus should be in the wireless arena. We have public safety towers that we can
leverage. The big challenge is how do we
connect the things we can leverage together?
Mr. Johnsen stated that we need to get together with STW and ION
so that we understand what their arrangement is, and so that we can determine
where we might fit in. Even if it’s a
bad news story, we need to find out for sure.
William Dibble suggested that a
shortfall might be funded through a program referred to as “STEVE” (Southern
Tier Electronic Valley…). Mr. Dibble
believes there are similar projects at the Arkport
School and a place in Virginia.
Moving Forward
Chairman Curtis
Crandall talked about the service available in Allegany County. Chairman Crandall stated that the average small
business or homeowner may not understand the difference between wireless,
broadband and fiber. What may be
adequate for that small business or homeowner would not be sufficient for
larger businesses or colleges. What is
our ultimate goal? If ION plans to run fiber through the center of the
County, we shouldn’t look at it as a negative even if they take a large portion
of the customers we had hoped would support the system we were proposing. We need to see how we can spur off of it, and
there may be other means to secure funding.
Our goals may need to be scaled back from where we originally started,
but we still should be able to greatly improve our current service. Mr. Johnsen explained what happened in Swain,
noting that they started in Swain with a link to touch Time Warner in
Canaseraga. Mr. Johnsen indicated that
they would not have enough bandwidth to supply larger organizations. Chairman Crandall stated that the end user
doesn’t really care where the fiber originates.
Chairman Crandall mentioned the possibility of partnering with other
neighboring counties.
Mr. Starks stated that we have to
consider the risk and reward to community.
It would be great to have fiber to the home, and some day it will
probably get there, but what we need to do is to determine how we can
accomplish the goal of getting connection to homes. It’s probably going to take a “hodge podge”
of services to meet that goal, and there is nothing wrong with that. It’s definitely not as risky. What is going to change over five years that
may allow us to enhance this? As we
start to look at the future, we need to plan how to get to the end goal and how
to get the infrastructure out there. Mr.
Starks stated that e-government may play a role as the little towns and villages
become required to provide more and more things electronically. The microwave systems to the public safety
towers will also need to be upgraded.
Mr. Dibble stated that when we put
the original project together, we ended up with an estimate of $8.5 million to
get service on the poles. We also looked
at Pennsylvania and tying into the Pennsylvania
counties. It was also tied closely with
public safety and the 911 center. Our
Public Safety E-911 Center is in a consortium with Steuben and Schuyler Counties. Mr. Dibble would like to see a push with STW to work toward the original goal of $8.5
million and see how it plays out. Mr.
Dibble believes we should develop a business plan so that we can apply for
round two stimulus funding. Mr. Starks reiterated that Allegany County
would not be eligible for stimulus funding because ION
has already received round one funding for this area. Steuben
County is going to build
fiber to all of their public safety towers, and then they plan to partner with
Verizon and others.
Committee Work
Mr. Johnsen stated that we need to
define what this committee hopes to accomplish.
We have been talking about mid-tier technology, and we really need to
focus on two levels of technology. Our
first goal would be to provide broadband to homes and small businesses ideally
throughout the County. The second goal
would be to clearly define where we really need the fiber. This changes our mission substantially
because we are broadening the reach, but the two goals are intertwined. There is more money available for the last
mile than for entire projects.
Legislator Pullen stated that half
the cost would be covered to replace our microwave for the public safety
towers. Is there funding that we should
be applying for now? Could this
ultimately become our backbone? Mr.
Starks stated that there is some money for this type of project, and the
majority of the money is going to collaborative projects. There are operators that would be very
anxious to take over a project that someone else has paid to build.
Legislator Pullen stated that we
need to set up a meeting with STW
and ION, possibly jointly. We also need to check with other
counties. We need to consider applying
for funding for public safety fiber, and we need to define the two levels of
approach.
Mr. Johnsen stated that we need to
look at the map of the County and clearly define where we truly need fiber so
that we have a goal in mind. We would
then be in a better position to approach STW
and ION to see how we can work
together to accomplish some of our goals.
The balance of the needs of the County really falls back to the last
mile projects.
Chairman Crandall provided a brief
history of what the committee has done and where we stand. Chairman Crandall stated that we need to
define what our ultimate goal and mission are, and what County resources should
be used to get us there. We cannot end
up with a business plan when we do not know what our business is. We need technical input and an understanding
of what factors impact our plan. Mr.
Starks stated that we really need the community involved in this. The group you have is good, but you may need
some more technical representation. The
idea and thought that this team will continue to move forward is the goal with
respect to developing your long-range technology plan. Mr. Starks stated that we should put together
a short-term strategy to see what we can do for the underserved areas, but we
do not want to lose sight of the long-term goals. ECC
would be happy to play a technical role in helping the County organize this.
Mr. Johnsen stated that we probably
have all the information we need. Those that
will need fiber will most likely fall into one of the biggest groups of
business, emergency services, health care, and education. Mr. Johnsen suggested that we include Development Director John Foels and the E-911
Coordinator in identifying some of these needs.
Legislator Pullen asked when the
next meeting should be scheduled.
Legislator Pullen asked Mr. Foels to report back on which businesses
will need fiber. Mr. Foels stated that
no one other than Alfred State College has an immediate problem with what they
currently have coming into their building.
Mr. Foels said we should have Richard Zink come in and tell us about the
ION Pipeline and where they fit
in. We need to make him aware of what we
want and what we currently have. Then we
need to look at the areas that are not currently served. This pipeline is going very close to large
players. Mr. Starks said that eventually
we will want fiber to our public safety towers.
It would also be good to investigate the possibility of links with other
counties.
Mr. Dibble mentioned other funding
through the FCC, and Mr. Starks indicated that you have to be a registered
carrier for that type of funding. An LDC
registered as a carrier would also be eligible.
Mr. Dibble distributed a newspaper article entitled, “Can We Afford Web
Access for All?” for committee members to read.
Mr. Dibble suggested that the committee should also look at what they
are doing in Blackberry, Virginia.
Mr. Starks indicated that we still
have money left on our account with ECC,
and they would be happy to join us when we meet with ION
and/or STW. ECC
can help us move our goals forward.
Committee members agreed to hold
another meeting to define where we want to go before meeting with STW and ION. Legislator Pullen stated that he would throw
out some meeting dates in the next few weeks.
Adjournment
A
motion was made by Mr. Johnsen, seconded by Mr. Scott and carried to adjourn
the meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
Brenda Rigby Riehle, Clerk of the Board