Loading...
8.c IAC Minutes 9-10-2020 City of Scandia 14727 209 th St. N. PO Box 128, Scandia, Minnesota 55073 Phone (651) 433-2274 Fax (651) 433 -5112 http://www.ci.scandia.mn.us Internet Action Committee Location: Online Streaming (Boxcast and Zoom) Thursday, September 10, 2020 at 6:00pm Attendance: Cathy Mackiewicz, Chair Robert Wilmers, John Carney, K. C. Douglas, and Vice Chair Marschall Smith. Absent: None Also in Attendance: City Council Liaison Patti Ray, City Council Liaison Steve Kronmiller, City Administrator Ken Cammilleri, and Senior Director Of Government Relations for Midco Justin Forde. Call to Order – Chair Wilmers called the meeting to order at 6:10pm Approval of Agenda – Add the Frontier franchise agreement item #8. Cathy, KC. Motion carried. Approval of Minutes – Motion by Smith, seconded by Carney to approve the minutes with a correction offered by Ray to clarify the school principal was not involved in the coordination of this recent storyboard contest. The minutes will note that Ray emailed information to the principal regarding the project. Motion carried upon a successful roll call vote. Public Comments – There were no public comments. Midco 2020 Project Build-Out – Forde reported on the status of this year's buildout and offered his thanks to the community for partnering the project. The committee discussed some smaller build outs that were either in the process of being built out or have been recently completed. These included services at Gammelgarden, Redeemed Farm, and Mallard Ave N. New Minnesota DEED Border-to-Border Broadband Grant Grant – Forde introduced Midco’s proposed project for construction next year which included two identified pockets The total project cost is anticipated to be $332,019. $100,801 would be funded by Midco, the grant would fund $66,218, and the City would fund $165,000. The City will need to decide whether or not it wishes to provide this contribution level. The current amount that the City is proposed to contribute would increase the project’s likelihood of selection because it would place the State’ participation rate at 30%, which is identified within the grant scoring criteria. The City Council is requested to provide another letter of support to City of Scandia 14727 209 th St. N. PO Box 128, Scandia, Minnesota 55073 Phone (651) 433-2274 Fax (651) 433 -5112 http://www.ci.scandia.mn.us clarify what amount the City will be supplying and a new resolution. Forde will follow up with project details that can be presented to the Council for their consideration. The City can anticipate hearing about the grant award in December of this year. With the financial commitment, Midco will submit an application for Scandia. It was further noted that community letters of support should help with improving the chance of selection. Forde also reported to the Committee that Midco would also be initiating its own expansion activities along the City’s Northwestern border. He further noted that these extensions or “outs process” are conducted regularly. Kronmiller recommended that Midco look into the data that they have on Kirk Avenue N. He noted that the area shows served but he noted it is not. Forde noted that this would be reviewed. The Committee discussed the City’s share of financial commitment. They scheduled a special meeting at 5:45pm on Monday, September 14th to recommend an amount for the grant. Midco Ribbon Cutting Ceremony - Ray announced the itinerary of next week’s ribbon cutting ceremony, which is intended to draw attention to the project and promote customers to sign up for the new service. The day’s events will consist of a noon ribbon cutting ceremony with local and regional dignitaries and to-go boxed lunch. Later in the afternoon, Midco with have booth at the Scandia Farmers Market 3:30pm -630pm in which promotional materials and tote bags would be given away.. From 6:00pm-7:00pm the final event of the day will consist of a storyboard contest at Liliskogen Park. 8 stories will be on display and 250 Meister’s burgers will be served to-go. It was recommended by the committee that that leftover food be donated to a food shelf or local homeless shelter. Ray volunteered to identify a place where leftovers could be distributed. City Website Postings - Wilmers and Cammilleri reported that they had posted a blog on the City’s website that highlighted updates on internet expansion efforts. It was noted that the site would be a work-in-progress and will be refined over the next few weeks and may be reformatted with the City’s new website in January. Frontier Franchise Agreement - Cammilleri briefed the committee on a request from Frontier to consider approval of continuation of its franchise agreement due to changes in its ownership. The committee suggested that the City attempt to use the opportunity to negotiate the lifting of service caps, or under provisioned nodes, and to encourage the company to look into implementing GFast, (a service that is explained later in this meeting). 50/25/25 Grant Program Concept – Ray introduced a grant concept that she had been working on developing with Chair Wilmers. She noted that the lowest costs of connection come when Midco is building out there system. Midco would be willing to participate as long as a connection project worked out about $5,000. As a result $85,000 was put into the City’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) to finance a grant to help subsidize these connection opportunities. The initial concept is to finance these connections with $,2,500 to come from Midco, $1,250 from the City, and $1,250 from the property owner. To further close this City of Scandia 14727 209 th St. N. PO Box 128, Scandia, Minnesota 55073 Phone (651) 433-2274 Fax (651) 433 -5112 http://www.ci.scandia.mn.us financing gap, Ray and Wilmers have approached Security State Bank of Marine to consider funding an additional grant program to help with the homeowner’s share. The hope is that this project will help the City expand internet opportunities at a pace that would be otherwise faster than our current approach At the $85,000 funding level, it is possible that an additional 65 homes could be connected. Cammilleri offered to help Ray with drafting the grant program. The Committee agreed to revisit the concept once a draft is prepared. Dig Once Program – Ray introduced the idea of combining City public works road construction projects with the placement of network connectivity infrastructure. The Committee indicated their support for the concept. Cammilleri noted that since the City does not regularly trench in its road projects, they may not be a cost savings, but that the opportunity should be looked into. He noted that he would instruct the City engineer to include conduit and handhold infrastructure as project alternates, so that the City Council will have the opportunity to consider them in project build outs. Doing work with Frontier on GFast - Carney introduced a concept by a company called Broadcom that produces a high-speed modem chip that enhances DSL service. Genesis Technical Systems Corp. has chosen Broadcom's chip to become the engine in their 3rd generation technology that helps cancel out crosstalk between copper telecommunications lines with the result of dramatically faster data delivery through Frontier's DSLAM nodes you might see out in Scandia's neighborhoods and farms. The Committee noted that it should continue its efforts to reach out to Frontier to attempt to get their interest in implementing these cost effective solutions to enhance Internet connection speeds and quality. Next Meeting Date & Time – The Committee members agreed by consensus that the next regular scheduled meeting of the Internet Action Committee will be held on November 12th at 6:00pm. It was noted that due to Wilmer’s unavailability during the month of October, that Smith would be able to call a special meeting if a meeting is to be needed next month. Adjournment - The meeting was adjourned at 8:25PM upon motion by Wilmers, seconded Carney. The motion carried upon a unanimous roll call vote.