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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBC 2024-09-20Town of Dryden Broadband Committee Meeting Friday, September 20, 2024 – Via Zoom Approved Minutes Attendees Graham Dobson – Broadband Committee Mark Wilson – Broadband Committee Tony Salerno – Broadband Committee (joined late) Joel Cisne – Broadband Committee (left early) Jason Leifer – Town Board Dan Lamb – Town Board Tracy Monell – Gleamon Technology Ryan Garrison – HUNT EAS Kate Morseman – HUNT EAS Eric Beckhorn – Clarity Connect Dave Makar – Executive Director Amanda Anderson – Bookkeeper Cassie Byrnes – Confidential Secretary to the Town Supervisor Ray Burger – Planning Director Dave Makar called the meeting to order at 10:31am. Introductions – Dave Makar G Dobson read the Dryden Fiber Mission Statement aloud: “Our mission is to provide reliable, affordable, high-speed, fiber-based internet access. We offer state-of-the-art technology and unmatched customer service.” Business Tier Discussion: Naming and Reviewing of Features / Messaging – Dave Makar The goal of this is to expand and clarify the messaging around the business tier; There is no change in the pricing; We suggest renaming the tiers to better differentiate the tiers from the residential tiers • Current Options: Standard (was Silver), Preferred (was Gold), Enhanced (was Platinum), Enterprise (customized) Motion: Mark Wilson made a motion to move forward in renaming the business tiers to Standard, Preferred, Enhanced, and Enterprise Second: Jason Leifer All in Favor: Graham Dobson – Aye, Dan Lamb – Aye, Jason Leifer – Aye, Mark Wilson – Aye With no opposition, the motion to rename the business tiers was adopted. Key features of the business tier were discussed: • Increase speeds with no price changes o Standard – increase from 400Mbps to 500 Mbps o Enhanced – increase from 700Mbs to 1Gbps o Professional – increase from 1Gbps to 2Gbps • Static IP Address is already in place for business tier accounts (1 free with all accounts) o Additional IP Addresses available for $40/month (we have 1,000 available) • Prioritized repair – business customers are prioritized over residential for outages The next step will be to market these features to existing business tier customers, as well as sending out new postcards with the new business tier information Motion: Graham Dobson made a motion to move forward with improving the messaging and features of the business tier Second: Mark Wilson All in Favor: Mark Wilson – Aye, Graham Dobson – Aye, Dan Lamb – Aye, Jason Leifer – Aye With no opposition, the motion to improve the messaging and features of the business tier was adopted. Approval of Monthly Minutes – Dave Makar The draft meeting minutes of June 7, 2024, and June 21, 2024, have been provided by Cassie Byrnes and she requested their approval. Motion: Mark Wilson made a motion to approve the meeting minutes of June 7 and June 21 Second: Graham Dobson All in Favor: Graham Dobson – Aye, Dan Lamb – Aye, Mark Wilson – Aye, Jason Leifer – Aye With no opposition, the meeting minutes of June 7 and June 21 were approved. Map Updates – Dave Makar To keep map updating consistent, it was previously decided that starting July 1, 2024, every quarter we would have an update to the green, yellow, and blue zones (July 1, October 1, January 1, April 1) • October 1st – We will be updating the colors on the map (where we are and what we expect to be building in the next 6-12 months), adding the Town of Caroline and the Town of Caroline parcels, and adding street names and addresses when zoomed in • R Garrison shared the new green zones that will be added to the map with the quarterly update (south on Johnson Road from Freeville Depot Road, and the Empire Overlash) Mapping and Permitting – Ryan Garrison We cannot get a single permit for the entire Town of Dryden for every telephone pole, so we do it in chunks/parts of the Town with a certain number of poles (150 poles per permit) • DRY001-DRY013 – Pre-MIP permits that have mostly been approved and implemented • R Garrison shared a color-coded map of where all pole applications are and what parcels they correspond to, as well as what is currently being worked on and what will be worked on next • D Makar will work to publish an internal document for the Broadband Committee members that has this map, the color names, a brief description of what the area is, the name of the permit, and the timeline MIP Updates – Dave Makar The Empire State Development Directors met in New York City on 9/19/24 to approve a bunch of Empire State funded projects, including the Dryden Fiber (Town of Dryden and Town of Caroline) $8.9 million grant • Next step will be signing an agreement that specifies what the milestones are, when we will hit those milestones, and what the budget is • Will also need to gather all invoices that we have already paid, and submit them to Empire State Development for reimbursement There will be an Empire State Development public hearing on Friday, October 18, 2024, from 2pm- 3pm; Public comments and support must be submitted prior to the public hearing; Current customers of Dryden Fiber or prospective customers may comment on their experience using Dryden Fiber, why they support the project, or why public broadband is important to them There are 2 new grants not related to MIP but are being managed by the ConnectALL Office • BEAD Funding (9/28/24 deadline) – federal program for internet access (for parcels that we did not capture with the MIP grant) • Housing Infrastructure (no deadline) – updates to homes for improved internet access (government owned or government subsidized housing) Q&A – Dave Makar Customer Growth Projections: • 9/13/24 – 110 live customers, 25 in the installation queue • 9/30/24 – 125 live customers • 12/31/24 – 200 live customers • 3/31/25 – 262 live customers (approximate break-even) • 6/30/24 – 500 live customers • 12/31/25 – 1,000 live customers Green Zone Projections: • 10/31/24 – All of the Village of Dryden and Village of Freeville • 10/31/24 – Ithaca Estates (74 units), Pineridge (21 units) • 12/31/24 – Nearly all parcels north of Route 13 (currently yellow) • 6/30/25 – Remaining parcels north of Route 13 and Route 366 (currently blue) • 6/30/25 – Pathways south from Mount Pleasant to the Caroline town line • 9/1/25 – The 1st parcel in Caroline (Route 79 / Slaterville Road) become green • 12/31/26 – All current orange parcels and all Caroline parcels are green Next Meeting – October 4, 2024, at 10:30am The meeting adjourned at 11:35am. Respectfully submitted, Cassie Byrnes Confidential Secretary to the Town Supervisor