HomeMy WebLinkAboutBC 2024-08-09Town of Dryden
Broadband Committee Meeting
Friday, August 9, 2024 – Via Zoom
Approved Minutes
Attendees
Graham Dobson – Broadband Committee
Tony Salerno – Broadband Committee
Mark Wilson – Broadband Committee
Jason Leifer – Town Board
Dan Lamb – Town Board
Tracy Monell – Gleamon Technology
Ryan Garrison – 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
Doug Schneider – Cortland Standard
Dave Makar called the meeting to order at 10:32am.
Executive Summary (Month of July) – Dave Makar
• Construction continues to move strongly across multiple fronts across the Town (Village of
Dryden, Village of Freeville, parts of Ferguson Road, and Yellow Barn neighborhoods)
• Added new locations/homes/parcels including the Villages of Dryden and Freeville
• By the end of summer (September 21st) we’ll end up doubling the number of parcels that we
had at the beginning of summer
• We are now at 565 parcels (about 748 households)
• We have 66 paying customers (14 added in July) making it our biggest month since we started
• We had 65 inbound requests in June and 33 green zone requests in July
• We have 27 customers in the installation queue for the month of August
• We are now estimating:
o 100 customers by September 1st
o 100+ customers by the end of summer (September 21st)
o 200 customers by the end of the year (near break-even)
o 500 customers by the end of 2025
ConnectALL MIP Grant Project Highlights – Dave Makar
• The teams from Dryden, Caroline, Dryden Fiber, and HUNT have been working closely with the
ConnectALL Office on implementation of the grant
• We now have about 28 months left on the schedule and we are making progress
• For the next 2 ½ years, the main thing we will be working on is the implementation of this
grant, reaching the unserved and underserved across the Town of Dryden, and then into the
Town of Caroline (this will make our service more sustainable in the long run by adding these
1,200 additional homes)
Meeting Schedule – Dave Makar
• Dryden Fiber Public Broadband Committee – 1st and 3rd Friday of each month at 10:30am
• Dryden Fiber Operations Team Meeting – Every other Wednesday at 10:00am
o Focus on construction and installation collaboration
• Dryden Fiber MIP Status Call – Every Tuesday at 1:00pm
o Teams from Town of Dryden, Dryden Fiber, Town of Caroline, and the ConnectALL
Office meet to stay on top of the MIP project
• Dryden Fiber MIP Steering Committee – Monthly
o Internal team from Town of Dryden, Town of Caroline, and Dryden Fiber meet to make
sure we are going in the right direction over the next 2 ½ years
• Dryden Fiber Policy Subcommittee – Monthly
o Members from the Public Broadband Committee as well as some of our vendors meet
to advise and recommend on policy
Team Reports
• Customer Base – Amanda Anderson
o Consistent in terms of this report
o Residential Platinum shows a +1/-1 resulting from a customer that moved but
somebody moved into that house and got service
o We ended up with 14 installations, 13 new billings for the month of August
o Dan Lamb asked if our revenue stream is paid electronically and if there has been any
problem with it?
Amanda Anderson answered that pretty much everybody is automatically
signing up for automatic payments; There are a couple that aren’t getting their
first emails, but set up automatic payments once they get into the email; No
customers are mailing a check at this time; We are not charging the additional
percentage to cover the credit card fees to encourage our customers to sign up
for automatic payments (we currently pay about $100 per month in credit card
and ACH fees, and this will go up as we add more customers because it’s based
on the amount of money being charged); This saves a lot of administrative time
by not having to process cash or checks
• Construction Permitting Updates – Ryan Garrison
o NYSDOT Permits – The only one we have out there is a county permit
o Pole Applications
DRY001-DRY003 are in the process of closing out with NYSEG
DRY004 got pushed back because of the storm and they are estimating
completion by the end of next week (Etna area, Lower Creek Road, and Upper
Creek Road)
DRY005 was completed and we are going to begin to get our cable up (Caswell
Road)
DRY010 is estimated to be completed by the end of this month (North Road
and State Route 13 where the Empire Overlash ends)
DRY012 is awaiting non-billable make ready approval, so we will see that
getting done in September/October (State Route 366 from Freeville to Route 13,
parts of Dryden Road and Turkey Hill Road)
Other applications are waiting on packages or waiting on NYSEG approval
Graham Dobson asked, “When will we have to start for the MIP Project, or when
will we start submitting for those?”
• Ryan Garrison answered that we have already submitted everything to
LaBella for OneTouch on Phase 2 (everything in the south half of
Dryden), and we’ve got the majority of Caroline complete and ready to
submit (planning on doing this by the end of the month)
• Construction Implementation Updates – Ryan Garrison
o About 167 parcels were added this month (estimated at about 137 households) which
brings us up to 10% coverage on parcels and 12.9% coverage on households
o We have 15 aerial miles that happened in 60 days
o We have 22.5 miles of underground work that occurred over the last year/18
months/24 months
o The Village of Freeville is nearing completion with Main Street and Groton Avenue
scheduled to be finished next week
o The Village of Dryden is 50% activated and we are working to get this near 100% by the
end of the summer (we need to work with Graybar on getting materials)
o Underground work was completed at Applewood Lane, Wellsley Drive, and Tannery
Circle
o Underground is in progress on Penny Lane and Logans Run
o Underground work will continue on Greystone Drive, Hilton Road, Goodrich Way,
Scenic Way, Chelsey Circle, Bear Circle, and Hanford Drive
o Amanda Anderson asked if she should be sending construction postcards to any of
these locations?
Ryan Garrison answered yes for Penny, Logans, Greystone, Hilton, Goodrich,
Scenic, Chelsey, Bear, and Hanford
• Construction Update – Ryan Garrison
o Village Buildout – The South Backbone and the Empire Overlash will be green, but we
are waiting on closures
o Phase 2 Expansion follows the pole applications
• Installations – Eric Beckhorn
o Number of installations completed this month: 14
o Number of installations pending (as of July 31st): 27
o Installation blockers: 1 (15 Main Street – Eric Beckhorn will go out there today to see
what needs to be done)
o Tony Salerno asked, “What is the standard timeframe, if an area is green and I request
service, for the service to actually be installed?”
Dave Makar answered that it is around 2 weeks now that we’ve increased the
number of installs being done per day (Clarity used to only do one per day);
Clarity is very efficient and can do 4-6 installations per day; Clarity will be able
to get more people to do installs if needed
• Finance – Capital Project – Amanda Anderson
o No new inflows of interest
o We had a big subcontractor bill that came through in July
• Finance – Operations – Amanda Anderson
o A line was added in July for the outage credits that were taken for July invoices;
Because of the outage in May, the credit was applied in June, but most of those credits
were not accepted until July
o Accounts payable continues to stay steady at around $14,000-$15,000
o Accounts receivable is at $180 from new customers in July
o Total parcels available (7/31) was 565; Total addresses served by 7/31 (total customers)
is 66
o There will be a big jump in revenue coming in next month
• Finance – Operations – Dave Makar
o Difference of expenses to revenue = $10,945.00
o Income per customer = $56.29 ($56 flat number)
o Customer count = As we add more customers at the $56 per customer, income
increases, and the break-even point is estimated at 262 customers right now; Once we
pass the break-even point, the difference can go back into funding the construction
costs month after month
• Sales Operations – Tracy Monell
o Ray Burger sent a list of all the trailer parks in the Town, and Tracy Monell is working on
getting landlord agreements signed
o We now have 9 signed landlord agreements and 10 more waiting to be signed
o We have 36 commercial sales possibilities, and all have been contacted
o We have 14 new installations and 27 pending installations
o Had conversations with Dryden School District and George Junior; Both are interested
but already have commitments with other providers
o Contacted the owners of a new apartment complex that is under construction on
Dryden Road, and they are making arrangements for our service
o Some potential customers have asked about cables coming into their buildings (aerial);
The Policy Committee will discuss aerial vs. underground construction
• Customer Service – Dave Makar
o 33 install orders (green zone orders)
o 2 reports of “No Connectivity”
Dave Makar will ask Andrew Hafner to do a “Downtime Report” for the previous
month as well as see if anyone reported an outage
• Marketing (as of August 1st) – Dave Makar
o Under contract = 66 (12 new)
o Requests in July = 58
27 of these requests were available (in the green zone)
Serviceable Live = 48% (66/137)
o We continue to see strong website visits (users, new users, total sessions)
o June and July were heavy public relations months (11 media hits, 2 TV interviews)
o Social media postings consistent throughout July
o “Coming Soon / Construction” postcards (ongoing as we have new parcels go live)
o Next up = signs in the new neighborhoods, email marketing, swag
Reminders
• Our next meeting is Friday, August 23rd at 10:30am
The meeting adjourned at 11:39am.
Respectfully submitted,
Cassie Byrnes
Confidential Secretary to the Town Supervisor
DRYDEN FIBER
MID-MONTH REPORT
AUGUST 2024
TOWN OF DRYDEN BOARD MEETING
AUGUST 15th, 2024
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
▪Construction Updates:
o Massive Expansion coming in the next 60 days: Village of Dryden; Village of Freeville;
this will double the number of homes with access to Dryden Fiber (By September 21st,
2024)
▪We are now able to serve 565 parcels
o We are now able to serve 748 households (apartments; mobile homes)
▪We have 66 paying customers (+14 in July);We had 65 in-bound requests in June;
33 green zone in July
▪We have 27 customers in the installation queue for this month (Aug 2024)
▪We estimate 100 total customers by Sept 1, 2024
▪Dave is estimating 100+ customers by the "end of summer" (9/21/24)
o 200 by end of year (near break-even)
o 500 by end of 2025
Municipal Infrastructure Program Grant
▪Key Discussion Topics (between Dryden Fiber Steering Committee and CAO):
o Finishing Phase 3 pole applications (estimated completion date 8/23/24)
o Location data reporting of "Now Available" and "Subscribed" addresses
o Review actions, decisions, risks, schedule, licenses, and permitting
▪Accomplishments
o Survey of Caroline POP sites
o Began Design Development on MIP Phase 2 routes
▪Wins:
o We believe 4 of the 2,673 addresses are now live with Dryden Fiber
o These are the first 4 in the entire state of New York where installation is covered by MIP
Project Highlights
Project Name:Dryden Fiber Expansion
for Towns of Dryden and Caroline
Applicant and Partner(s):Town of
Dryden dba, Dryden Fiber and Town of
Caroline
Construction Miles (Fiber): 124.6
Total Locations Served:2,674
ConnectALL Grant Amount:$ 8,995,979.00
Local Contribution:$ 906,321.00
Total Project Investment: $9,902,300.00
Difference Monthly Expense Income Customers Income per customer
$(10,945.00)$14,660.00 $3,715.00 66 $56.29
$(10,460.00)$14,660.00 $4,200.00 75 $56.00
$(9,060.00)$14,660.00 $5,600.00 100 $56.00
$(6,260.00)$14,660.00 $8,400.00 150 $56.00
$(3,460.00)$14,660.00 $11,200.00 200 $56.00
$(660.00)$14,660.00 $14,000.00 250 $56.00
$(380.00)$14,660.00 $14,280.00 255 $56.00
$(100.00)$14,660.00 $14,560.00 260 $56.00
$12.00 $14,660.00 $14,672.00 262 $56.00
$180.00 $14,660.00 $14,840.00 265 $56.00
$2,140.00 $14,660.00 $16,800.00 300 $56.00
$4,940.00 $14,660.00 $19,600.00 350 $56.00
$7,740.00 $14,660.00 $22,400.00 400 $56.00
Finance -Operations
As of July 31, 2024
Appendix A
Team Reports
Team Reports
▪Customer Base – Amanda, Town of Dryden Bookkeeper
▪Construction Permitting Updates – Hunt Engineering
▪Construction Implementation Updates – Hunt,Syracuse Utilities,Lightspeed
▪Installations – Clarity Connect, Netegrity, Gleamon
▪Sales Operations – Gleamon
▪Finance – Amanda,Town of Dryden Bookkeeper
▪Customer Service - Netegrity
▪Marketing – Exec. Dir. Dave Makar
Customer Base
As of August 1st, 2024 (billing date is 1st of month)
Speed Number of
subscriptions
Billed Monthly
Revenue
Net Change
from Prior
Month
Average
Monthly
Revenue
Residential
- Silver ($45)400 Mbps 50 $2,250 +11
- Gold ($75)700 Mbps 6 $450 +2
- Platinum ($90)1 Gbps 3 $270 +1/-1
59 $2,970 +13 $50.34
Commercial
- Silver ($75)400 Mbps 5 $345 No Change
- Gold ($150)700 Mbps 1 $150 No Change
- Platinum ($250)1 Gbps 1 $250 No Change
7 $745 $106.43
Total 66 $3,715
Construction Permitting Updates
As of August 1st, 2024
▪NYDOT: Total Permits: 21
o 20 Issued Permits (+1 for this month)
o 1 Permits under review awaiting approval
o 0 Permits pending either drawings or survey
▪Utility Pole Permits
Application Name Status ECD Location
DRY001 Attached Complete Freeville (V)
DRY002 Attached Complete Dryden (V)
DRY003 Attached Complete Dryden (V)
DRY004 EMR in construction 8/14/2024 Etna Area
DRY005 EMR Complete 8/7/2024 Caswell Rd.
DRY006 Awaiting NYSEG approval of Non-Billable EMR 11/30/2024 Bone Plain Rd.
DRY007 Waiting on EMR Package 10/30/2024 SR 38 North
DRY008 Awaiting NYSEG approval of Non-Billable EMR 11/30/2024 Peruville Rd
DRY009 Waiting on EMR Package 10/30/2024 Fall Creek &Ed Hill Rd
DRY010 EMR in construction 8/31/2024 North Rd &SR 13 North
DRY011 Awaiting NYSEG approval of Non-Billable EMR 11/30/2024 Gulf Hill, Sweetland &Bradshaw Rd
DRY012 Awaiting NYSEG approval of Non-Billable EMR 9/30/2024 SR 366,Dryden Rd &Turkey Hill Rd
▪Freeville is nearing completion with Main Street and Groton Ave scheduled to be finished next week.
▪Village of Dryden is 50% activated and are working to get this near 100% activated by the end of the
summer.
▪Underground was completed at Applewood,Wellsley,& Tannery Circle.
▪The underground is in progress on Penny Lane/Logan's Run,
▪Underground work will continue on Greystone Dr,Hilton, Goodrich, Scenic Way, Chelsey Cir, Bear Cir. and
Hanford Dr.
Construction Implementation Updates
As of August 1st, 2024
Coverage Parcels Households
New (June 2024)+167 +138
Total w/ coverage 590 775 (est.)
Total 5,839 6,036
Coverage %7.25% (+2.84%)12.9% (+2.2%)
New Fiber Aerial Underground
New (June 2024)+0 miles +2.25 miles
Total 15 miles 22.5 miles
Construction Update
Route Name Status ECD Application#Notes
Village Buildout
South Backbone Complete 8/1/2024 DRY002 MR Complete, Strand complete,
Cabling this week.
Village of Freeville (Empire Overlash Inc.)40% Complete, Splicing 8/31/2024 DRY001 60% Live, finishing Rt 366.
Village of Dryden Aerial 50% Complete, Splicing 7/14/2024 DRY002,003 25% Live, Splicing Continues
Village of Dryden Underground*60% complete, Line work and splicing 9/14/2024 Underground Applewood and Wellsley complete. .
Phase 2 Expansion
Lower Creek Rd Electrical MR Construction in process.8/14/2024 DRY004 HRS is scheduled for electrical MR
construction in July.
Tompkins County Recovery Fund Electrical MR Construction complete on
DRY005 and DRY006 is pending NYSEG
Approval of MR Costs.
9/14/2024 DRY005, 006 HRS projects electrical MR
construction in July/August.
West Dryden Rd Pending NYSEG Approval of make ready
costs.
10/31/2024 DRY007 App in process.
Rt. 38 North Pending NYSEG Approval of make ready
costs.
11/31/2024 DRY007 Bidding
Peruville Rd Pending NYSEG Approval of make ready
costs.
11/31/2024 DRY008 App in process.
Fall Creek Rd/ Ed Hill Rd/Telco Design 12/31/2024 DRY009 App in process.
West Mallory Rd/ Morris Rd Telco Design 12/31/2024 DRY009 App in process.
North Rd/ Dutcher Rd Telco Design 9/31/2024 DRY010 Bidding
Gulf Hill Rd./ Sweetland Rd Telco Design 12/31/2024 DRY011 App in process.
Rt. 366 (Freeville to Rt. 13)Electrical MR Construction in process.10/31/2024 DRY012 HRS projects electrical MR
construction in July/August.
Installations
As of August 1st, 2024 (billing date is 1st of month)
▪June Install Summary
o Number of installations completed this month:14
o Number of installations pending (as of July 31st): 27
o Installation blockers / questions:1
Finance – Capital Project
As of July 31, 2024
Balance Sheet as of 7/31/2024 2024 Year to
Date
Total Project to
Date Project Budget
Assets
- Cash 764,751.40 Inflows 123,547.83 1,509,474,96
- Due from Grants 624,614.00 Expenses
- Acct Receivable 197,309.19 Professional Fees 332,685.86 790,696.68
Total Assets 1,586,674.59 Incidental Const. Exp 3,764.73 70,055.83
Equipment Purchases 138,210.13 2,019,595.56
Liabilities and Equity Subcontractor Costs 566,264.38 2,988,850.64
- Bond Anticipation
Note
5,840,000.00 Pole and Permit Cost 352,514.42 932,480.82
Equity -4,253,325.41 Interest Payment 146,840.97 168,641.73
Total 1,586,674.59 Total Expenses 1,540,280.49 6,961,321.26 14,535,281.00
Budget Remaining 7,573,959.74 52.1%
Finance -Operations
As of July 31, 2024
July 2024 Year to Date
Residential 2,415.00 11,884.50
Balances as of 7/31/24 Commercial 700.00 5,460.00
Accounts Receivable 180.00 Misc Fees 885.00
Accounts Payable 10,870.34 Outage Credit -1,242.50 -1,242.50
Total Revenue 1,872.50 16,897.00
Expenses
Parcels Serviceable 6/30 425 Credit Card Fees 176.32 1,019.97
+ New Parcels added in July 140 Billing Program -2,320.92
Total Parcels available 7/31 565 Utilites 6,079.67 55,861.95
*does not include MDUs Subscriptions 8,405.60 55,776.77
Total Addressed Served by 7/31 66 Insurance 303.28 303.28
Total Expenses 14,660.91 115,281.89
Profit/Deficit -12,788.41 -98,384.89
Sales Operations
As of August 1, 2024 (billing date is 1st of month)
▪Multi-Use Development –working on getting agreements with Mobile home parks
throughout the town
▪Renters – We now have 9 signed agreements and 9 more waiting for signature
▪Commercial Sales - 36 possibilities and all have been contacted.
▪Prospects-We have 14 new installs and 27 pending. Also 14 potentials that have signed
up and contact has been made. These include 3 in the Ithaca Estates mobile home park
and the 2 for the Town
▪Had conversation with Dryden School District and George Junior.Both
are interested but have already made commitments to current providers
▪Made contact with owners of new apartment complex that is under
construction on Dryden Rd.They are making arangements to have our service
Customer Service
As of August 1st, 2024 (billing date is 1st of month)
Helpdesk Call Report July 2024
•Bandwidth Complaint (Speed Concerns)
•1
•Billing Related Call
•15
•Downed Drop (Damaged Service Line)
•0
•Email (Calls related to email difficulties)
•0
•No Connectivity
•2
•ONT / Power Cycle (Calls related to the
ONT where unplugging or rebooting
equipment was necessary)
•1
•Other / Unrelated (Calls looking for
unrelated departments or information)
•42
•Outage
•1
•Install Orders / Create Service
•33
•Router Issue
•1
•PC / Laptop Issue
•0
•Sporadic Connection
•0
•Streaming Related Issue
•0
•User Error / Education
•6
•Wireless
•2
Sum: 104
Note:
Install Orders denote an
incoming install scheduling
request – not a completed install
One caller can generate
numerous tickets for a single
issue (i.e. calls in 5x for same
problem)
Marketing
As of August 1st, 2024 (billing date is 1st of month)
8/10 9/8 10/5 11/2 12/1 1/1/24 2/1/24 3/1/2
4
4/1/2
4
5/1/2
4
6/1/24 7/2/2
4
8/1/2
4
Under Contract 8 22 26 32 28 28 29
(+3, -2)
32
(+3)
37
(+5)
40
(+3)
44
(+6,-2)
54
(+10)
66
(+12)
Requests (since
1/1/23)
150 174
(+11)
230
(+21)
252
(clean -
up)
274
(+9)
298
(+24)
332
(+13)
363
(+31)
389
(+26)
409
(+20)
429
(+20)
494
(+65)
552
(+58)
Available 30 38 41 43 44**44 56 TBD TBD 75 87 110
(+23)
137
(+27)
Not Available 120 136 189 209 226 250 276 TBD TBD 340~342 384 415
Serviceable Live 76.7
%
76.3%80.5%83.7%72%63.6%51.8%TBD TBD 40/70 51%
(44/87)
49%
54/110
48%
66/137
Website Visits 8/25-9/7 9/22-10/4 10/21-11/2 11/17-
11/30
12/1-
12/31
1/1-1/31 2/1-
2/29
3/1-
3/31
4/1-
4/30
5/1-
5/31
6/1-
6/30
7/1-
7/31
Users N/A 226 193 161 140 320 484 392 403 368 516 820 935
New Users N/A 211 170 137 115 288 424 346 353 315 471 755 868
Sessions N/A 324 271 515 194 448 673 617 706 601 739 1221 1373
Engagement
(secs.)
N/A 0m 46s 1m 09s 1m 10s 42s 1m 7s 1m 6s 1m
30s
1m
6s
53 s 58 s 1m
14 s
1m
3 s
Marketing
As of August 1st, 2024 (billing date is 1st of month)
▪June and July were a heavy Public Relations month
o 11 media hits (through 7/11/24)
o 2 tv interviews
▪Social Media postings
o Facebook, Instagram, Nextdoor
▪Postcard outreach:"Construction / Coming Soon", "Now Available", "Business Class"
(coming soon)
▪Next up:
o Signs in the new neighborhoods (Spring Run, Dryden Village,Village of Freeville), refreshed
design
o Email Marketing
o Swag (Hats, Truck Magnets, stickers)
Appendix B
Background and Definitions
Meeting Schedule
▪Dryden Fiber Public Broadband Committee – Public reporting on project
o 1st and 3rd Friday morning, 10:30am-11:30am (except July and August, 2nd and 4th
Friday morning)
▪Dryden Fiber Operations Team Meeting – Construction and Install Collaboration
o Every other Wednesday, 10am-11:15am
▪Dryden Fiber MIP Status Call – Meet with Connect All Office to stay on track
o Every Tuesday, 1pm-1:45pm
▪Dryden Fiber MIP Steering Committee – Implementation of the Grant
o Monthly (Town of Dryden, Town of Caroline)
▪Dryden Fiber Policy Committee – Advise and Recommend on Policy
o Monthly
Permitting
NYSEG
▪Permitting Steps
Permitting
NYSDOT
▪Permitting Steps
