City of Jacksonville City Council met Aug. 3.
Here is the minutes provided by the council:
The City Council will be following the guidance set forth in the State of Illinois’ Restore Illinois Phase 4 for meetings and events.
The Jacksonville City Council Meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Mayor Andy Ezard. The meeting was publicly announced by posting and by written notice to the local newspaper and radio stations.
ROLL CALL: The following answered present: Aldermen Brandon Adams, Mike Bartlett, Don Cook, Jeff Hopkins, Jeff Lonergan, Lori Large Oldenettel, Aaron Scott, Mike Wankel, Steve Warmowski, Eren Williams; Mayor Andy Ezard; City Attorney Dan Beard; City Clerk Skip Bradshaw. A quorum was declared.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
PARKS & LAKES:
1. Resolution awarding bid for the Veterans Park Improvement. Park Caretaker Adam Fletcher would like to move forward with Phase I of the Veterans Park Improvement Project, which involves improvements to the sidewalks in and around the park. Bids for the project were received and K. E. Vas came in as low bidder at $52,968. A budget of $25,000 has been set aside in Capital Improvement for this project, and the remaining amount will be pulled from the budget for lifeguards at the pool, since the pool did not open this year. Phase II will encompass the utility courts and Phase III will encompass the playground area. Ald. Warmowski asked Ald. Cook, the Finance Committee Chairman, if this was what he expected with the budget. Ald. Cook replied that yes, he was aware that the employee funds may be used to supplement the $25,000 in the Capital Improvement Fund to complete Phase I of the project. Ald. Cook also expressed his displeasure about losing so many trees during the sidewalk improvements. PC Fletcher explained that unfortunately it is necessary in order to comply with ADA guidelines for the sidewalk. The plan is to replace any trees that must be removed. Ald. Hopkins would like to ensure that the trees do get replaced. Ald. Oldenettel commended PC Fletcher for his work of reforesting the parks, and being proactive in planting new trees throughout the different parks.
Phase II will be resurfacing the utility courts. One side will be used as a basketball court, and the other side will be used as a tennis court/multi-use court. Phase III will be updates to the playground area. PC Fletcher would like to expand the dog park into the green space area as well, as it is typically unused space.
Motion was made by Oldenettel, seconded by Hopkins, to accept the resolution. CA Beard read the resolution as proposed.
2020-R-059
Be it resolved by the City Council of the City of Jacksonville, Morgan County, Illinois, that a Resolution AWARDING BID FOR THE VETERANS PARK PROJECT – (K. E. Vas - $52,968), is hereby approved.
Mayor Ezard asked for discussion and there was none.
ROLL CALL: 10 Yeas; 0 Nays
Motion carried, 10-0.
SPECIAL STUDIES:
1. Resolution authorizing waiver of advertisement for bids and acceptance of Memorandum of Understanding/proposal from I3 for city-wide broadband. Motion was made by Warmowski, seconded by Lonergan, to accept the resolution. CA Beard read the resolution as proposed.
2020-R-077
Be it resolved by the City Council of the City of Jacksonville, Morgan County, Illinois, that a Resolution AUTHORIZING WAIVER OF ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS; AND ACCEPTING MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING/PROPOSAL FROM I3 FOR CITY-WIDE BROADBAND – (Construction costs to the City not to exceed $2,500,000), is hereby approved.
Mayor Ezard asked for discussion. Ald. Adams previously implored the Council to look into hiring a consultant for this project, a sentiment shared with other aldermen. He introduced Larry Thompson, owner of Vantage Point, who joined the meeting via teleconference, to provide insight into a project of this magnitude. Ald. Adams asked Mr. Thompson what a professional consultant would recommend a community do to get connected. Mr. Thompson gave a brief introduction into himself and Vantage Point, and then spoke about what to look for in a provider. He talked about the different options the City has on how to accomplish the task; the municipality can complete the project themselves, they can use a neighboring telephone company to overbuild their network at no cost to the City, or a public/private partnership can be made where the City and the provider both have an interest in the network and share responsibilities, both the risk and reward. Things to keep in mind are the level of investment/costs involved and effort required to complete this project, and understanding the demand so that the tick rate (the frequency with which the server updates the game rate) is properly estimated prior to beginning the project, as that factor alone could double the cost of installation and is one of the most expensive parts of the network.
Ald. Adams asked what the City would need to do if it just wanted to connect one part of the City. Mr. Thompson explained that it is still fairly expensive initially to install the fiber optics, so there needs to be reasonable generating revenue sources. The City would also have the option to go with a wireless network which is usually less expensive up front, but is generally more expensive to maintain as well as losing some of the upload/download speed.
Ald. Adams thanked Mr. Thompson for his time and expertise. Ald. Adams read a portion of an opinion letter from Yates Engineering Services issued to Scott Roberts with the Khamma Group, quoting Yates Engineering as follows: “there are other facilities, facility based ISP’s that have brokered deals with municipalities with an even greater contribution based on less density”. Yates Engineering Services would be able complete a thorough FTTH analysis and provide an on-site review with final recommendation summaries. Ald. Adams read through several comments by various consultants and additional comments from Yates Engineering, and encouraged the Council to do their due diligence and talk to the experts prior to voting on entering into an agreement with i3 Broadband.
Mayor Ezard addressed Ald. Adams and commended him for doing his due diligence on this matter, but Mayor Ezard has a different opinion. As the Mayor, he relies on Scott Roberts, who he’s worked with for 15 years, he relies on Steve Warmowski, the Special Studies Committee Chairman, he relies on Dusty Douglas, he relies on a lot of people who are more educated in their field and on this matter than he is, and stated that the City needs to move forward with the MoU with i3 Broadband. Mayor Ezard is not saying Ald. Adams is wrong but he feels very strongly about what i3 is offering. The City has done their homework on this company and the MoU, he supports it and feels it must be put to a vote. Mayor Ezard stated it is very important that everyone who resides within the City of Jacksonville be provided equal opportunity with regard to internet service.
Ald. Adams wants this service to be available to everyone at an affordable rate. Ald. Hopkins feels this MoU needs to be put up for a vote even though Ald. Adams differs on the opinion to support the MoU.
Ald. Hopkins echoed Mayor Ezard with regard to Scott Roberts, and trusts Mr. Robert’s opinion. He stated that Ald. Adams repeats the same information and opposition, so he feels Ald. Adams should vote against the MoU if he feels that strongly about it. The vote needs to move forward. Just because Ald. Adams disagrees with this, it does not mean he can control the entire Council with his opinion. He’s tired of it, and the vote will move forward, and if Ald. Adams does not agree with it, then he can vote no. Ald. Hopkins, along with the rest of the Council, has listened to Ald. Adams read to them, and he’s tired of being read to. He is glad Ald. Adams has looked into the project, and is glad that he is knowledgeable about the project, but it is time to move forward and vote.
Motion was made by Ald. Adams to table this resolution. Motion failed due to lack of a second to the motion.
Ald. Cook addressed Ald. Adams regarding the original email from Yates Engineering Services, reading Mr. Bretsch’s original opinion as follows: “I have reviewed the MoU presented by i3, and the $2.5M is indeed only about 20% of the investment required to bring a full fiber-to-the-house solution to Jacksonville. The MoU as it is written seems to be a reasonable agreement.”.
Ald. Oldenettel feels the Council should follow the same guidelines as the Department Heads are required to do and minimize spending. The City has postponed over $500,000 in Capital Improvement projects this year, and there is a decrease of revenue due to the pandemic. She is not sure this is something the City needs or that this is the right time to be making this type of investment. Mayor Ezard feels the Department Heads would stand behind him in support of moving forward on this project. Ald. Oldenettel would be in favor of setting aside $25,000-$30,000 to bring service to a specific location first as a trial run. She will be voting against this resolution tonight, but she understands and respects everyone’s opinions. Mayor Ezard again disagreed stating that the City needs this and wants this project to move forward. He stated that entering into an agreement at this time is not out of desperation as Ald. Adams suggested.
Ald. Warmowski asked Mr. Roberts for his comments on the email from Mr. Bretsch with Yates Engineering. Mr. Roberts reached out to several consultants and Mr. Bretsch was the first to respond.
Mr. Bretsch feels this is a reasonable deal, not perfect, but very reasonable. Mr. Roberts stated that this is definitely not a decision made out of desperation as he, the Mayor and several others have been involved in this issue since 2014 when the State of Illinois pushed the Illinois Broadband Opportunity Project.
Many studies have been done over the years and they have worked with many providers in and around the surrounding area. The goal is not to drive current providers out of town, but to foster competition and serve underserved areas. Mr. Roberts addressed the comments from Mr. Thompson about things to watch for, and noted that those items mentioned by Mr. Thompson are not risks that the City would face with this MoU, but would be the responsibility of i3. Mr. Roberts absolutely believes broadband internet service is a need for the community, and is more critical that it be done now than ever because more and more people will be forced to work from home.
Ald. Adams asked Mr. Roberts for his thoughts on the cost to the City regarding i3’s proposal for future expansion over the 33 anchor institutions. Mr. Roberts stated there is no cost mentioned in the MoU. CA Beard clarified that the agreement includes an extra 5-6 institutions to try an anticipate installations and feels that the City can work with i3 on anything beyond that. Should the city expand further west, for example, the cost for installation would be at i3’s expense, not the City’s. Ald. Adams asked about future costs to bring the emergency sirens onto the network. Mr. Roberts explained that i3 is providing the City with a fiber ring that the City will design in conjunction with i3, so any costs to bring on the sirens would only be for the initial hookup. Ald. Adams would like to see that topic more defined in the MoU.
PUBLIC COMMENT: Comment was made by Greg Lyman regarding his job when working from home. Video conferencing is critical in his work. He currently subscribes to Mediacom, which has made his job difficult when trying to make video calls as its difficult to maintain a stable connection for more than an hour at a time. He is in support of this MoU so that he can remain in Jacksonville and still do his job.
Ald. Warmowski talked about the timing of the project. He feels now is the right time in order to bring Jacksonville up to speed and noted that the money that the City is going to invest in the project will give everyone equal opportunity with regard to internet service.
Rob Thomas from DTE Technologies feels that the City is in dire need of this service. The current providers in town cannot provide sufficient service to maintain an internet connection for any length of time for those who work from home. He is in support of this MoU.
Motion was made by Adams to amend the Memorandum of Understanding to include the Right of First Refusal (RFR) so that the City has the right to purchase the network should i3 Broadband be sold to another company. CA Beard suggested working with i3 on that matter because typically an RFR is not written into an MoU, but is a separate agreement, as you must take into account what is being sold at that time. Motion failed due to lack of a second to the motion.
Motion was made by Adams to amend the Memorandum of Understanding to require i3 Broadband to make the middle mile segment of the fiber optic cables open access so other service providers can rent it from i3. Motion failed due to lack of a second to the motion.
ROLL CALL: 8 Yeas; 1 Nay (Oldenettel); 1 Present (Adams)
Original Motion to approve the MoU carried, 8-1-1.
ADJOURNMENT: With no further discussion motion was made by Hopkins, seconded by Cook, to adjourn the meeting at 7:02 p.m.
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