New Year!
The city council met for the first time in 2024 last Thursday, the 11th. We had a full agenda. I look forward to working with our newest council member, Carter Stanford. He jumped right in the deep end and started swimming, so I'm sure he's going to be a good addition to the council.
$100,000 From the County
County Commissioner Brent Mendenhall presented a check to the city as a contribution for the recent tennis court project agreement between the city and Sugar-Salem School District. Commissioner Mendenhall expressed the county commission's appreciation for Sugar City as the anchor of north Madison County. It's great the county is able to throw in a big chunk of change for the project.
New Fiber Service?
The county is moving forward with its grant-funded project of making fiber internet service available to unserved and underserved residents: https://www.eastidahonews.com/2024/01/madison-county-receives-game-changer-grant-for-high-speed-fiber-internet/
Fybercom, the company doing the county's project, has made a proposal to Sugar City for the city to "piggyback" on this project and get fiber installed throughout the city where it currently isn't available, which is mainly in the older neighborhoods. They would run a fiber connection to each house--approximately 550 households--with no direct cost to the homeowner. The households would then be able to sign up for Fybercom's service at a much discounted rate that would stay in place for at least 3 years. The final figures and costs aren't settled, but they look to be cheaper than most residents in these homes are currently paying and for much faster speeds.
The city's contribution would be the $300k grant money we received back in the Covid-era spending spree by the government.
An alternative option the city has been researching is for the city to actually own the fiber and hardware in the city, hiring a company to install and manage it. The city council and the mayor have been considering this option for a couple of years now.
I have my reservations about this city-owned plan. Some cities own their fiber network just as they own their city water and wastewater systems. The advantages include the potential for much greater speeds than usually available through other companies and the city making income from the fiber "utility" and passing the savings on to residents or using the money for parks or other city projects. In theory, the city-owned fiber would mean fewer other internet providers coming into town and burying their own fiber. Because the network would be "open," any internet service provider (ISP) could operate on the network and offer their service to residents. The idea is that this would increase competition and service and lower subscription costs.
The council voted 3 to 1 to put out a call for proposals from other companies who may wish to work with the city on a city-owned fiber network. I voted against the motion.
I don't think the city needs to treat fiber as a utility like water and sewer. I don't think the city needs to make money off the system, even if we pass the savings directly on to the residents. I don't think we have a solid plan for coming up with the up-front money to get the system installed and running. We'd have to apply for grants. If the grants failed or didn't cover the complete costs, we'd have to find some other way to pay for it, which probably would mean a bond.
Even though a contracted company would run the system, including maintenance and customer service, the city would probably have to hire some kind of administrator to oversee things from the city's side of things. It would be one more incremental increase in our administrative size. Sometimes hiring a new administrator is necessary, but I'm not sure this would be one of those times. In theory, everything could be handled using the money coming in from the fiber network, but there's no doubt it would still be one more thing the city would have to keep up with and track.
I'm also not sure how the fiber installation would work--would we only service the 550 households without fiber currently? Currently, new neighborhoods are being put in with fiber, so what would the city's role be in future developments? Would we require the new developments to use the city's fiber company? I assume so. And I'm not sure the city needs to make that happen. The city has an inherent responsibility to keep our potable water safe to use and to process wastewater appropriately and to maintain our roads. I don't see a similar level of responsibility when it comes to internet access for residents.
Certainly, having multiple companies digging up our streets to bury their fiber is a hassle and needs to be better handled than it has been in the past. But I don't think that hassle alone is enough to make it worth the city owning the fiber network.
I would prefer to jump on board the county's project and take advantage of the work being done in the county already. No one would have to sign up for the Fybercom deal if they didn't want to. But the project is a good chance to offer fiber in the older parts of town, and it doesn't require the city to get into the fiber network business. I would not like to miss this opportunity waiting to to see if the alternative option pans out.
The council will review the city-owned network proposals in February. I'm willing to be persuaded otherwise if there are additional details and arguments still to be made, but for now, I'm against the city owning the network. I'll follow up on this topic after we review the proposals in February.
New Impact Area?
Lots of residents attended and spoke at the public hearing for the city's proposed new impact area. In the end, the county commissioners voted to table the issue for up to a eight weeks as they follow up to learn a bit more about some of the issues brought up in the public hearing.
As far as I could tell, the majority of pubic comment in favor of the proposal came from Sugar City and Salem residents. The majority of comment against the proposal came from residents to the east of Sugar City.
I think the proposed impact area would benefit everyone in the proposed area, but I understand the resistance to that idea.
I don't know, but I imagine the county commissioners will come back with an amended plan of some kind that would reduce the size of the proposed impact area. Then it will be the city's turn to decide what the next step should be. Everyone interested should continue to research what an impact area is and what it's purpose is and try to stay involved as much as they can.
That's it for now. I'm glad to see we're finally getting some good snow. I don't do much regular winter recreation, but my dog and I enjoy shoveling snow instead of having to pay for a gym membership! I look forward to serving on the city council in 2024.