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Home My WebLink AboutBC 2025-03-21Town of Dryden Broadband Committee Meeting Friday, March 21, 2025 – Via Zoom Approved Minutes Attendees Graham Dobson – Broadband Committee Tony Salerno – Broadband Committee Mark Wilson – Broadband Committee Joel Cisne – Broadband Committee Arthur Sommer – Broadband Committee Jason Leifer – Town of Dryden Supervisor Dan Lamb – Town Board Mark Witmer – Town of Caroline Supervisor Kathleen Kelley-Mackenzie – Town of Caroline Councilmember Tracy Monell – Gleamon Technology Jeff Smith – Municipal Solutions Andrew Hafner - Netegrity Shawn Scorzelli – Syracuse Utilities Eric Beckhorn – Clarity Connect Dave Makar – Executive Director Amanda Anderson – Director of Finance and Personnel Cassie Byrnes – Confidential Secretary to the Town Supervisor Ray Burger – Planning Director Rick Cicciarelli – Resident Kimberly Griffiths – Resident Dave Makar called the meeting to order at 10:34am Introductions – Dave Makar J Cisne 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.” • As a customer, J Cisne said that the last power outage was professionally handled, and he gives Dryden Fiber 5 stars across the board • D Makar added that we need to maintain our “unmatched customer service” as we grow, and to grow so big that customers continue to be surprised by how great our customer service is D Makar explained that Vantage Point was not present at the meeting because they are steadily working on the project: • Managing the MIP project • Attending weekly meetings with New York State • Working through the budget • Reviewing the Grant Disbursement Agreement • Doing a physical plant audit in both Dryden and Caroline • Doing a design audit on the KMZ files • Doing a budget for the entire project (both MIP and non-MIP) • Supporting us with marketing and finance (doing an audit of our website and overall finance) • Another senior engineer added to the project T Salerno asked if there was a timeline for when we will be resuming construction • D Makar is meeting with Vantage today to get focused on where we are with the timing of the construction restart New Map Updates – Dave Makar The map has been updated as of March 18th • New colors on the map and in the map legend that is outside of the map software • The parcels at the west side of the Village of Dryden have been updated • Turned Cook Street back to yellow until we figure out how to get fiber in there and get a signed property owner agreement o T Salerno suggested adding another color to the map, which would indicate that a Multi-Unit Dwelling (MDU) has service available, but tenants cannot be turned on until we receive a signed property owner agreement from the owner of the property; If we leave them yellow, potential customers may not think the service is available o D Makar suggested seeing what happens with our projections over the next few days with Vantage to see what the overall scope looks like  Adding a 5th color to the map is being considered anyway, to cover all the areas that currently do not have a color  We could add a 6th color to the map for MDU’s that are in the green zone but need owner permission, or need engineering support • Baker Hill Road (from Route 366 to the Tower) and Mount Pleasant Road (from Deerhaven Road out to the Observatory) are no longer shaded and we cannot provide service at this time o We will have to put this in the post-MIP list of roads to build on o 2 Dryden Fiber customers have been contacted to move their service to Point Broadband, and were offered a package that is closely aligned with our package o The committee members discussed different providers and the deals they are offering  D Makar mentioned the article on drydenfiber.com that guides customers on how to make a change from cable to another provider Approval of Monthly Minutes – Dave Makar The draft meeting minutes of December 6, 2024, and December 20, 2024, have been provided by C Byrnes, and she requested their approval Motion: G Dobson made a motion to approve the meeting minutes as recorded for December 6, 2024, and December 20, 2024 Second: M Wilson With no discussion, opposition, or abstention, the meeting minutes of December 6, 2024, and December 20, 2024, were unanimously approved C Byrnes explained that both the agenda and the meeting minutes for all Broadband Committee meetings are available to review on the Town website • T Salerno added that the meeting recordings are also available on the website via YouTube, and commented that these recordings are very handy o C Byrnes credited Loren Sparling, Deputy Town Clerk, for this service Outage Update – Dave Makar On Sunday afternoon, a windstorm came through Tompkins County that caused trees to come down and about 6,000 homes to lose power (NYSEG) During this time, our FirstLight (backup provider) connection was stopped, and then Dryden Fiber lost connection • Rick Young, Town of Dryden Highway Superintendent and D Makar both visited the PoPs and the Central Office to be sure that power was running to them • After rebooting and running diagnostics, Scott Brennan from Netegrity found that a remnant from the initial design of the ring caused the outage o The script was originally set up to switch from Windstream (our main provider) to FirstLight (our backup provider) anytime there is an outage o The FirstLight outage triggered the system to switch from Windstream to FirstLight (who was down) o D Makar and S Brennan fixed the script to automatically switch to “backup” instead of FirstLight in the event of an outage o At 115 minutes Dryden Fiber was back online, just under the 120-minute policy threshold o G Dobson and D Makar discussed the need for testing the backup system during a maintenance window to ensure it works as intended o Backup generators are currently being looked into for the PoPs in the event that they lose power during a storm Outage Communication and Reporting – Dave Makar The committee discussed how to handle network outage reporting and communication with customers • D Makar suggested not sending outage notifications for short outages (0-2 hours), especially if weather related • T Salerno suggested creating a page on the website showing current outages, and being sure we have some type of communication with our customers when there’s an outage • M Wilson added that it would be smart to make this page mobile friendly as well • Committee agreed that automated notifications should be avoided to prevent false alarms • G Dobson suggested sending out communication including that their ticket is being worked on and an ETA on when the ticket will be resolved o A Hafner clarified that customers who submit trouble tickets receive follow-up calls, while generic outage reports may not • Committee will further discuss how to handle outage emails/communication G Dobson discussed issues with the phone system, including a neighbor’s inability to connect with Dryden Fiber to place a trouble ticket • A Anderson explained that this may be due to the cellular lines (voice-over IP) that are in use (Dryden Fiber is not a hard-wired phone line) • T Salerno added that there may be a problem with the cellular network or the system’s capacity for handling calls • A Anderson will follow up with the phone provider D Makar suggested adding a page or alert on the website to report outages, which could be updated quickly • M Wilson proposed using Drupal’s status update feature for this purpose Committee members discussed improving the website’s functionality: • Including the support email on the contact page • Making the dropdown menus more visible • Editing the dropdown menus to include “Support” • Kyle Jensen, Marketing and Media Consultant, can make these updates to the website Community Connections Event – 3/29/25 from 11am-1pm at Neptune Hose Fire Station D Makar will be there with Dryden Fiber stickers and postcards to hand out, and possibly an updated map of the Town showing the green zones • T Salerno, G Dobson, and A Sommer may attend as well Service Level Agreement Discussion – Dave Makar Our Service Level Agreement (SLA) is on the website and there has been discussion about updating the following items: • Service Availability/Unavailability: Acts of God/Weather (Phillips Lytle, Broadband Attorney, has sent draft language for this update) • Credit Schedule (coming soon) • “Dryden Fiber can immediately terminate an agreement with a customer if it’s determined that Dryden Fiber has no lawful access route to the customer’s location” (nothing in the agreement currently addresses this scenario) D Makar would like to update the SLA for business and residential customers with one single update that covers all 3 of the above items • D Makar will work on the first and third item and T Salerno will work on the second item Next Meeting: Friday, April 4, 2025, at 10:30am (March Reports and Permitting Updates) The meeting adjourned at 11:40am Respectfully submitted, Cassie Byrnes Confidential Secretary to the Town Supervisor