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Home My WebLink AboutBC 2025-06-20Town of Dryden Broadband Committee Meeting Friday, June 20, 2025 – Via Zoom Approved Minutes Attendees Graham Dobson – Broadband Committee Tony Salerno – Broadband Committee Arthur Sommer – Broadband Committee Jason Leifer – Town of Dryden Supervisor Dan Lamb – Town of Dryden Deputy Supervisor Mark Witmer – Town of Caroline Supervisor Brad Penney – Vantage Point Solutions – Project Engineer Kevin Keough – Vantage Point Solutions – Director of Customer Relations Tracy Monell – Gleamon Technology Shawn Scorzelli – Syracuse Utilities Eric Beckhorn – Clarity Connect Dave Makar – Executive Director Cassie Byrnes – Confidential Secretary to the Town Supervisor Ray Burger – Planning Director Matt Kinast – Accounting Assistant Rick Cicciarelli - Resident Kimberly Griffiths – Resident Cortland Standard Representative Dave Makar called the meeting to order at 10:33am Second of 2 Monthly Meetings – Discussion Meeting Introduction D Makar introduced Matt Kinast, who joined the team 2 weeks ago as an accounting assistant; The primary focus of this position will be with accounts payable and reimbursement requests 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.” • As a Dryden Fiber customer, G Dobson stated that he enjoys the price and reliability Anonymous Case 001 – Dave Makar This is an amendment to a single easement for a property in order to provide service to a neighbor; The only way we can serve one of our customers in the green zone is to go through a utility pole in the backyard of their neighbor (NYSEG designed this network many years ago) • The Committee discussed a proposed non-standard Right of Access Agreement, which includes terms for fiber removal if the customer leaves and 48-hour notice for repairs o This Right of Access Agreement was satisfactory to the property owner with the utility pole, the town attorney, and the town board D Makar asked for a motion from the Public Broadband Committee to approve offering this specialized Right of Access Agreement for Anonymous Case 001 Motion: T Salerno made a motion to approve the Right of Access Agreement for Anonymous Case 001 Second: G Dobson With no discussion, opposition, or abstention, the Right of Access Agreement for Anonymous Case 001 was unanimously approved Business Conversations – Legal and Policy – Dave Makar 1. Force Majeure Events Force Majeure Events are events that are outside the control of both Dryden Fiber and the customer (outages caused by fire, flood, storms, explosion, loss of commercial power, etc.) This language is not currently in the SLA; If any of these events happen to cause any type of outage, our current SLA says that any outage over 120 minutes would result in kicking into our credit policy D Makar asked for a motion from the Public Broadband Committee to accept the addition of the Force Majeure Events language to the Service Level Agreement, both for the Residential Tier and Business Tier Motion: G Dobson made a motion to add the Force Majeure Events language to the Dryden Fiber Service Level Agreement, both for the Residential Tier and Business Tier Second: T Salerno With no discussion, opposition, or abstention, the addition of the Force Majeure Event language to the Dryden Fiber Service Level Agreement, both for the Residential Tier and Business Tier, was unanimously approved 2. Outage Calculation Options D Makar discussed the current credit policy, as well as optional policy modifications that are up for consideration • Option 1A (Residential Tier): o 0-4 hours of outage = No credits (to give our teams more time to fix an outage) o 4-36 hours of outage = 10% credit o 36-144 hours of outage = 20% credit o 144+ hours of outage = % of month outage D Makar explained that we have done quite a bit of work on the network to prevent the things that caused previous outages, and we haven’t had one in quite a few months • Option 2 (Business Tier): o 0-4 hours of outage = No credits o 4-8 hours of outage = 10% credit o 8-16 hours of outage = 20% credit o 16-32 hours of outage = 30% credit o 32-36 hours of outage = 40% credit o 36-72 hours of outage = 50% credit o 72+ hours of outage = 75% credit T Salerno and G Dobson agreed to these credit schedules D Makar discussed the outage history and the impacts the outages had, as well as how the network has been strengthened with redundant backbones and power systems (generators and natural gas at several locations); Using this knowledge to find a suitable site to build the second PoP in Caroline • May 2024 – Not Covered / Not Human Caused o 40 customers – out for 52 hours o Cause: Windstream offline, no redundant backbone/secondary provider o Resolution: Secondary and now Tertiary providers are live • November 2024 – Covered o 35 customers – Out for 22 hours o Cause: Loss of electricity at Yellow Barn PoP, UPS not configured, no generator o Resolution: UPS configured, generator plan in place, long-term power generation scheduled • February 2025 – No Impact o 0 customers (no one knew there was an outage) o Cause: Windstream offline o Resolution: FirstLight came on automatically and handled all traffic • March 2025 – Covered / Human Caused o 300+ customers – out for 115 minutes o Cause: FirstLight offline due to software configuration issue o Resolution: Configuration updated D Makar asked for a motion from the Public Broadband Committee to accept the modifications to the credit schedule as identified in Option 1A for the Residential Tier and Option 2 for the Business Tier Motion: J Leifer made a motion to accept the modifications to the credit schedule as identified in Option 1A for the Residential Tier and Option 2 for the Business Tier Second: G Dobson With no discussion, opposition, or abstention, the modifications to the credit schedule as identified in Option 1A for the Residential Tier and Option 2 for the Business Tier were unanimously approved Hardware Provider Update: Ciena v. Calix v. Nokia v. AdTran – Dave Makar We currently use Ciena as our primary provider of switches in the PoPs at the Central Office, the ONUs at each individual house, and the plume device for Wi-Fi (which is not always strong enough for every house to only use 1 device) We have been looking into Calix, who is a provider of hardware services, for about 7 months • Calix has several tiers of their Wi-Fi devices (called GigaSpires) and they can offer 3 different devices that we can provide to our installation teams (the installation teams can then install the correct device to each house based on square footage and placement of the device) o This will be a better customer experience and will give our installation teams more control when doing installations • We need to add another switch at the Freeville PoP to bring in 32 more slots • There are other options (Nokia and AdTran), but we have made the most progress with Calix, as they are more widely adopted across the board and would help us with the growth of the PoPs and the network with better devices Calix offered to present more about their services and products on July 9th or July 10th; D Makar invited the members of the committee to join this conversation and ask questions B Penney suggested using a soft bid process (rather than a full RFP) to engage multiple vendors (including AdTran, Nokia, and Calix) in order to compare pricing, services, and equipment lead times D Makar mentioned that there is an 8-12 week lead time on some equipment, so we need to plan ahead to make sure that if we do make a switch, we have enough equipment to get us through D Makar explained that both Plume and Calix offer cloud services for network security and parental controls (about 75% of Dryden Fiber customers are using Plume devices) • Calix Wi-Fi devices can be used with existing scanner networks to replace Plume devices, allowing customers to switch between cloud service platforms INHS Varna Project Update – Dave Makar We are still waiting for an update from INHS The focus is on providing a solution to local TV and internet connection needs for the 53 public housing units, rather than just delivering a particular type of cable MIP Update – Dave Makar Budget Update • The original budget was under scoped in terms of the cost per mile, as well as the number of miles we needed to reach every home in the Towns of Dryden and Caroline • We have increased our request for the project from $9.9M to $12.6M and have submitted that request to NYS • We hope to have an answer from NYS by the end of next week and a Grant Disbursement Agreement by July 15 Construction Update • The project is progressing with engineering work, permit applications, and construction planning • B Penney noted that despite the complex negotiations with the State, the project remains on track to be completed by the end of 2026, with additional funding needed to ensure success • We added about 75 parcels on Route 366 in Varna, finished the western edge of the Village of Dryden, and finished the Yellow Barn neighborhood • Map updates are taking longer than expected but will be done soon July & August Meetings – Dave Makar Due to holidays and vacations, D Makar suggested changing the meeting dates for July and August to: July 11 (Reporting Meeting) & July 25 August 8 (Reporting Meeting) & August 20 The committee members agreed to this schedule and so they have been accepted The meeting adjourned at 11:55am Respectfully submitted, Cassie Byrnes Confidential Secretary to the Town Supervisor