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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBC 2024-11-15Town of Dryden Broadband Committee Meeting Friday, November 15, 2024 – Via Zoom Approved Minutes Attendees Graham Dobson – Broadband Committee Mark Wilson – Broadband Committee Joel Cisne – Broadband Committee Arthur Sommer – Broadband Committee Dan Lamb – Town Board Mark Witmer – Town of Caroline Supervisor Kathleen Kelley-Mackenzie – Town of Caroline Councilmember Tracy Monell – Gleamon Technology Ryan Garrison – HUNT EAS Kate Morseman – HUNT EAS Casey Kurz – HUNT EAS Dave Makar – Executive Director Amanda Anderson – Bookkeeper Cassie Byrnes – Confidential Secretary to the Town Supervisor Ray Burger – Planning Director Rick Cicciarelli – Resident Dave Makar called the meeting to order at 10:32am. 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.” MIP Update – Dave Makar The Municipal Infrastructure Program (MIP) was awarded to 5 projects in the first phase; Dryden Fiber serving the Towns of Dryden and Caroline was one of those 5 projects; Dryden Fiber was awarded $8.9 million to bring fiber internet to every house in the Town of Caroline (served and unserved and all the homes that it passes), as well as every unserved and underserved home in the Town of Dryden (and all the homes that it passes); In total, this is around 2,670 addresses across the two towns We have received the Grant Disbursement Agreement, reviewed it, and sent it back with comments; This is the agreement we have with New York State that is going to tell us and them what the milestones are that we have to achieve, as well as how much we’re going to spend on each of those milestones so we can spend the money, build the network, pay the invoices that come from our vendors, collect those invoices that have been marked paid, and send them as well as the canceled checks that we used to pay the invoices to New York State for reimbursement (during this project, both the Town of Dryden and the Town of Caroline will be floating the money through bonds to pay all the bills, and then get reimbursed from the State) • Aiming for finalization of the GDA this month (November) We are working on an Intermunicipal Agreement (IMA) with the Town of Caroline, to specify how this functions between the two towns and New York State MIP Grants have covered the cost of 22 of our installations (0.8% of the 2,673) MIP Grants have supported passing 207 of the 2,673 homes (7.7% of the project) MIP will expand to cover 60 additional addresses (from the FCC BEAD eligible list in the Town of Dryden); No additional funds, but will block other ISPs from accessing these homes/overbuilding on our state funded networks NY State Infrastructure Summit – Dave Makar November 13, 2024 – Binghamton, NY J Leifer, D Makar, and R Garrison attended, and J Leifer was a panelist on “Driving Economic Development through Broadband Investment” • The overarching goal of this panel is to discuss why (and how) broadband infrastructure is a key driver in economic development, attracting young professionals, companies, jobs, and real estate; What is working around the country, and specifically in NY’s southern tier and how to fund these critical projects; What the different models are and how broadband intersects with all of the infrastructure needs in the region Marketing Updates Direct Feedback – Dave Makar D Makar emailed all customers on 11/14/24 regarding the sign panel opportunity; Received great feedback right away: • “Thank you for the friendly service and fast internet. We have been connected for a couple of weeks and are very happy with it.” • “We would be happy to display a Dryden Fiber sign on our property. We are on a corner, which will get lots of visibility. Glad to take an add-on panel as well.” • “We’d be happy to put up a Dryden Fiber sign, with an add-on, on our lawn.” Signs Posted and Panels – Dave Makar 48 signs posted as of 11/14/24 9 new sign requests and 4 add-on panel requests Estimated Total: 57 signs by the end of today Sign Panels Discussion – Dave Makar D Makar shared the add-on sign panels via Facebook, Instagram, and NextDoor D Makar asked, “Do we want to have a contest like we talked about? Maybe having a free month of service to the sign selected by the Broadband Committee?” • G Dobson liked the idea M Witmer added that the Town of Caroline will be including a notice in their next town newsletter about Dryden Fiber coming to Caroline, and inviting people to sign up; He is anticipating many people signing up • G Dobson suggested using language in the notice that does not give a specific date for service to be available in the Town of Caroline, but instead to use a vaguer description such as “late fall, early winter” so that timeline promises from Dryden Fiber can be kept Broadband Facts – Dave Makar Chuck Bartosch, who helps with the committee, and A Anderson, put together Broadband Facts (as requested by the FCC), that make it clear for the consumer what the differences are between different offerings We have 6 of the Broadband Facts, one for each of our services at the Residential Tier and the Commercial Tier, and they are on our website on the Services page Business Tier Updates – Dave Makar The Business Tier has now been pushed out Letters went out to our current customers with information about what’s included in the Business Tier The Business Tier on the website has been completed We have new postcards that have been drafted and will be printed in the next 15 days, and will be sent out in December to any business addresses Phone Number Selection: (607) 844-7800 – Dave Makar Waiting for the phone number to be turned on so we can begin the rollout plan, to be worked on by D Maker, A Anderson, C Byrnes, and the team at Netegrity • Publish on the website • Publish on social media • Update the Town phone tree / auto-attendant New phone number will reduce the number of non-Dryden Fiber related phone calls that Netegrity receives each month, and will make calling Dryden fiber easier for customers, as one phone number gets you right through to the right people Construction / Map Updates – Ryan Garrison R Garrison showed a map of where splicing and cabling work is happening currently, and in the weeks to come Map updates will happen on Monday morning Installations – Tracy Monell There are 35 installations scheduled with Netegrity, another 26 that are waiting to get connected, and another 6 at Ithaca Estates (62+ total) Equipment Update – Due to rapid adoption, we ran out of inventory of the Ciena ONU devices, which are part of the connection from the network to the home (one on each home); We have 310 more shipping to us today (11/15/24) T Monell and D Makar believe we can get to the break-even number of 262 customers by the end of the year or by the end of January 2025 T Monell has been in contact with a few potential businesses and will continue discussions with them Network Stability – Dave Makar Maintenance is scheduled for 11/19/24 (Tuesday) between 1am and 5am; We will send an email to all customers on Monday to let them know the outage should be no more than 10 to 15 minutes; This will include updates at each of the PoPs and will be done remotely by Netegrity Q & A T Monell stated that we are going to need more storage space for materials; The Conex that we currently have is full and there is no place to put more equipment that we are going to need to have; We have moved from doing 30 installs in 6 months to 30 to 40 in one month, and that’s a lot of materials that we need to make sure we have D Makar suggested having a meeting with the MIP Steering Committee to discuss what we need and where we would want it located in the Town of Caroline D Makar suggested if space is needed in the short term, we have a few options at Town Hall and DPW that could provide some storage space Future Topics: • Caroline Outreach Postcards • Take Rate / Customer Base – Goals and Efforts: Currently about 20% take rate • Metrics, Trends, Date, and Data sets Next Meeting – December 6, 2024, at 10:30am The meeting adjourned at 11:45am. Respectfully submitted, Cassie Byrnes Confidential Secretary to the Town Supervisor