City of Jacksonville Special Studies Committee met June 10.
Here is the minutes provided by the committee:
Purpose of the meeting was to discuss:
Community-wide broadband.
ROLL CALL: The following Committee members were present via teleconference call: Aldermen Steve Warmowski – Chairman, Jeff Hopkins – Vice Chairman, Brandon Adams, Jeff Lonergan, Lori Large Oldenettel; Mayor Andy Ezard; City Attorney Dan Beard; City Clerk Skip Bradshaw. Also in attendance via teleconference call were Aldermen Mike Bartlett, Don Cook; City Treasurer Ron Smiljanich; Emergency Management Director Phil McCarty; Scott Roberts – Khamma Group. A quorum was declared.
Community-wide broadband
i3 Broadband has submitted a proposal to provide high speed internet direct to every residence and business within the Jacksonville corporate city limits. The cost to the City is still under negotiation but may be approximately $2.5M for the fiber connection. Ald. Warmowski feels this is necessary in order to encourage economic development in Jacksonville.
Mr. Roberts explained that included in i3’s proposal are 12 strands of fiber to use as the City deems necessary. He feels that 12 strands would be adequate, but thinks the City should negotiate for more than 12 strands. Doing so would not only improve connectivity with off-site City facilities, it would benefit other agencies in town and encourage economic development. Mr. Roberts noted that the City would not own the fiber strands, but would hold a long-term lease on them. Additionally, it is typically the internet provider who would provide maintenance on these internet strands.
Ald. Warmowski talked about including South Jacksonville and Morgan County in the project to help ease the financial burden on the City.
Ald. Lonergan, Oldenettel and Hopkins all spoke in favor of the project. Treas. Smiljanich explained that the City does not meet the bond requirements for a loan of that magnitude, but the option still exists to take a loan that must be paid back within 10 years. At 2.1% on $2M, annual payments would run approximately $200,000. He suggested using video gaming revenue for this project. At this time funds are available to support this project.
Ald. Warmowski advised that this project could be in place by late summer of 2021. Ald. Oldenettel asked if the City could handle this project in conjunction with the payments on the new firetrucks. She was advised that the firetrucks have already been paid for. However, the City will need to replace two more firetrucks within the next 10 years or so at approximately $1.5M.
Brief discussion ensued regarding the installation timeline and project logistics.
Devin Cox with Entry Point Networks explained that project costs are typically around $15- $16M to build out a robust community-wide fiber optic network, but the cost to the City is much less. He feels i3’s numbers are way out of the norm with regard to the City’s portion of the project costs and gave an example of another location that installed over 72 fiber optic strands at around $1M, and a location that is in the process of building a 26 mile fiber network consisting of 288 fiber optic strands for $1.1M. He talked about what will happen if the City partners with i3 Broadband, noting the City will lose all control in what happens on that network, and it will be a shared network as evidenced from installations in Champaign/Urbana, which are charging customers $107/mo. for internet service. It will also not be a symmetrical network meaning upload and download speeds will not match.
Kevin Kloehn with engineering and consulting firm Vantage Point suggested the City seriously look at affordability and pricing, timeline and build out, quality of service, guarantees, and how the value is determined with i3 Broadband. He feels there are many providers that may be interested in the same negotiations as i3 and suggests looking at other providers. He cautioned the City to do their due diligence when looking for and locking in with one provider.
In order to get the best service available at the lowest possible cost, Mr. Tom Allen with Cass Comm feels the City would benefit from either hiring a consultant, or providing a Request for Proposals (RFP) so other suppliers would know what Jacksonville is looking for. He also noted that providing a high speed internet service that would provide over 1 gig of service would eliminate the possibility of any grant funding.
Discussion ensued regarding whether or not to hire a consultant for this project. Ald. Adams would like the City to consider dividing this request for proposals into two parts, one with fiber optics for in-house use, and one for community wide use. Ald. Hopkins disagrees about dividing up the proposal. He is unsure that hiring a consultant would be the best route but would like to meet as a Committee to discuss what the City is actually looking for with regard to providing community-wide internet service and how best to move forward. Ald. Adams feels hiring a consultant is essential in helping guide the City into the right decision. Ald. Oldenettel is concerned about how quickly technology becomes outdated and how things will evolve over time, possibly negating the need for fiber optic cables in the near future. She is in favor of providing these services to the community but feels more information is needed in order to make an informed decision. Ald. Adams pointed out that fiber optic cables are the most future-proof technology available and will always been needed.
Ald. Cook asked Ald. Warmowski what the Special Studies Committee will be recommending to the full Council. Ald. Warmowski will be requesting permission to proceed with the proposal from i3 Broadband, but will keep negotiating on costs and number of strands offered to the City. He will be passing along the information from Vantage Point to CA Beard to determine whether or not the City should hire a consultant. Ald. Cook suggested the City look at using the cannabis tax revenue in addition to the video gaming revenue on this project. He is hopeful that the City will not need to deplete the video gaming revenue in order to leave funding for Capital Improvement projects. Ald. Adams noted that the more money invested up front the faster the return on investment.
This item will be placed on the June 22nd Council agenda for discussion.
PUBLIC COMMENT. No discussion.
ADJOURNMENT: With no further discussion the meeting was adjourned at 6:58 p.m.
http://cms6.revize.com/revize/jacksonvilleil/city_government/city_council_committees/special_studies_minutes/2020%20Minutes/Special%20Studies%20Cmte%20Mtg.%20-%20Internet%2006.10.20.pdf
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