Government : VMEU's Continued discussion on the future of the iVinton Broadband Project

The Vinton Municipal Electric Utilities met on Tuesday, January 29 to discuss the iVinton project.


The meeting opened with a report from Dave Fridley, of FARR Technologies who is responsible for the planning and mapping of the broadband project.


After opening the bids for building the entire broadband project, Farr explained that we are more than $200,000 under budget for the project. Two of the bidders requested an extension on the completion date considering the weather conditions. If the board agrees to extend the completion date for the lowest bidder, from December 31, 2019, to January 10, 2020, the lowest bidder agreed to drop their bid another $200,000, bringing the project more than $400,000 under budget.


The final decision will be made by the board on February 12th whether to proceed or to stop the project.


The project is ready to go, the studies have been completed, the planning is done, the financing is ready to begin. Overall as Vinton stands in this process, we are further ahead than other towns at this stage of preparation than others that have built their own broadband projects.


Final approval from the board is the only thing preventing the project from moving ahead.


Of the 30 people in the room, there were only a few unsure about what should be done.


"Vinton should own the cable to the edge of Vinton. If you can control this, it prevents a partner from becoming a competitor," said Fridley.


Right now the budget for this project is set up so that if a homeowner wants to be connected as it's built, there wouldn't be a charge to them. However, if they want to connect after construction is complete there could be a substantial charge for the added expense for connection at that point to the homeowner.


Likening this project to building a house he said, "We have the plans, the land, the financing figured out, we just need the go ahead."


Fridley said of this project, "It will be a superior service." He went on to explain other providers in the area are using outdated materials and we will be building for the future generations of Vinton.


Michael Maloney of D.a.Davidson & Co.spoke to the board reassuring the board that the numbers aren't different than what was predicted, but are now tangible.


Again reiterating that Vinton has more information at this stage in the planning process than other communities have had who have done this same project and have been successful.


When asked the risk of not being able to secure financing after signing, by Mike Elwick.VMEU Board Member, Maloney's reply in part was, "The electric utilities have a surplus of funds,... if you have money you can borrow money. It's rare to have bids in hand, you have that."


"Are we just saying it's an electric utility project so we can use electric utility money?" asked Elwick. "I am going to remind you of this over and over," Maloney said, "You are responsible for Vinton's Utilities that provide electric and communications. This is no longer about electric money versus other money. There is a tangible, clear electric benefit on day one and this project may be what protects the electric utility's future viability."


Maloney pointed out three benefits that the electric utilities would have immediately upon the completion of this project.


First


This will benefit the electric system with smart metering and AMI from the first day it is in operation. It will also provide for the future success of the electric utilities.


AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) refers to the system used to collect information on usage at the customer site and allows communication between the customer and service provider for things like electric, gas, and water utilities allowing data reception and management systems that create the information.


This would eliminate the need for someone to go to each home and read the meter, it would also eliminate human error in reading them.


There would be no need to send someone to a home to turn utilities on and off


The city would be notified if there is a power outage


The system could also alert someone if there were water leaks before the customer might know it


With an AMI the cause of service issues like the source of a loss of power can be identified without the need to drive around looking for lines that are down or a transformer that might have problems.


Efficiency would be greatly increased with the use of the AMI.


Second


Delivering fiber utility build out will benefit both the residential and commercial side


Third


From an economic developmental standpoint, this will benefit the long term viability (success) of the city of Vinton. This is in line with some of the local, state and federal goals when talking about the need for rural broadband going into the future.


Maloney explained that we have what he calls a "financeable project." Getting the financing won't be a problem. He went on to explain that other communities did not have bids in hand or other information in hand that Vinton already has prepared.


He explained that with the work of FARR, other consultants, the committee researching and the work done in the past, it's clear that this project can be financed.


"We know that capital, costs and expenses will not exceed this, those are known commodities. Those are all tangible numbers" Maloney said. "The numbers really aren't that different than what we had in August."


"Any changes are only going to be doing things that will make these numbers better," he said.


Both speakers Fridley and Maloney emphasized the need to move forward quickly and have a green light for the project by February 12th.


Maloney explained that just for all the hurdles to secure the financing he would need 60-75 days to complete this. At the same time, everyone else has a list of things that they need to set in motion. So it is necessary to get the approval for this quickly.


Further conversation indicated that ImOn is very interested in partnering with Vinton providing services to subscribers. CFU is also being considered for cable services. So in each of these situations, there is nothing preventing Vinton from moving forward.


Mayor Bud Maynard said, "We're okay. We want to go from good to great. This is the next step that makes this happen. When people see that we're willing to invest in our community they will come because they see we have something great here."