Council Approves New High Speed Fiber Network For City

The September 21, 2015, Council meeting was called to order at 7:36 P.M. by Council President and Ward IV Councilwoman, Mary Louise Madigan.

The first item of business had Council returning to a topic that was introduced back in May. The Mayor asked Council to consider a resolution that would allow the city to enter into a contract with OneCommunity, an Ohio non-profit cooperation and its subsidiary, Everstream, Inc. with the purpose of installing a fiber optic communication system in Lakewood.

The City of Lakewood has used Cox Communication for its communication needs for 35 years. A year ago the Administration met with representatives of Cox who informed them that their arrangement was no longer current and if the city needed additional services their cost would go up. Considering the increased use of internet services for regular day-to-day business, not to mention those of some of the City’s newest programs, and those that could still come, the Mayor felt the uncertainty made the City vulnerable. Seeing the City’s internet use growth, he thought the schools might run into a similar problem.

After the meeting with Cox, the Administration began looking into alternatives. At one point the City considered installing a communications system themselves with a local company that installs such networks, but quickly came to the realization that the City is not in the business of managing physical networks, nor should it be. During this process the City met with OneCommunity which has had success helping set up other communities with communication systems. OneCommunity will shop around for the best provider for the system and will offer a system with substantially more speed. The City currently has a download speed from Cox of 150 Mb/s, a newly installed system in Lakewood would have download speeds of 1 Gb/s.

The City received proposals from both Cox and Everstream, through OneCommunity, with Everstream coming in substantially lower. The annual fee for the network maintenance, which is locked in for 20 years, would be $3,000, which though the Cox fee was not reported, is supposedly cheaper. In terms of internet cost, Everstream will give the City its internet for free, which over the 20 years of the agreement will save the City almost $800,000, nearly the entire cost of the network installation.

The network will also become available for businesses in the Madison and Detroit corridors. The Mayor said he believed that some of the businesses in these areas could probably also use the bump in speed.

There were a few people present to speak on the matter. The first was Cox Communications Public Affairs Manager. She began by reiterating that Cox and Lakewood have been partners for 35 years and that Lakewood was actually the first municipality to switch to Cox. She then said that the network the City is looking for already exists. Cox has built and has been running a system in Lakewood that meets the City’s demands. The City has been using this system for free for 3 years, she said, while Cox waits for a response to the contract they sent to the City. She ended by saying she does not see why the city would spend $900,000 of tax payer's money for a network that already exists and asked the City to not move forward with the current proposal but move forward with a formal RFP.

Next, Cox Communication’s Business Sales Manager told Council that when comparing the current and proposed systems the differences are minor, however that he feels that Cox has a superior network. He cites that the proposed Everstream network will have 144 strands while Cox has three times that. He gave the network coverage for the schools as an example. The proposed system would have 12 strands for the schools whereas the Cox network currently has 12 strands preschool. He ended his statement by asking the City what they thought the timeline would be for installation of the new system, and what their contingency plan would be if Cox decides to cease service in the interim.

Bill Major, the Everstream Vice-President, then spoke to Council. He said that they will bring 117 miles of new fiber to the City, including coverage for the City, the Schools, police, and fire. He said they will bring a speed that is not currently available in the City while saving the City money in the long run. In terms of the number of strands he said that they have found 48 strands which “is fundamentally more than enough.” He then ended by saying that it is “about time there is some competition in your municipality.”

The Mayor asked Michael Coletta, the Manager of the City’s Information Technologies department to explain why a formal RFP process was not followed. He said that in a RFP process once the proposals come in there is no counter negotiations that happen, so you are stuck with the terms of the proposals. In terms of the network coverage, Mr. Coletta said he was able to do things like ask for free internet, whereas had they put that in an RFP, they would have likely gotten no response.

Councilman Tom Bullock (At-Large) said that he was really excited about the prospects of this new network. He believes that it could be something to give Lakewood an edge in attracting businesses to the City.

Council proceeded to pass the resolution unanimously.

Moving on, the Mayor then asked Council to consider a resolution which would create a Public Art Task Force in Lakewood. The Task Force would first and foremost be responsible for helping select public art for the new Solstice Steps project. However they would also have a broader responsibility of helping the city to develop official guidelines for what public art should be in Lakewood and how to go about selecting it. The City has already looked at the guidelines, ordinances, codes, master plans, and selection methods of many other cities and hopes that the Task Force will be able to use that information to help the City come up with its own system crafted for Lakewood’s needs.

Council referred the matter to the Committee of the Whole for consideration.

Law Director, Kevin Butler then ask Council to consider granting the Planning Commission an extension on considering a matter. The Planning Commission is considering a proposal from Councilman Sam O’Leary to turn St. Charles Green into a park. According the Lakewood’s codes they have 50 days to consider such a proposal before making a decision. Wanting to make sure they are thoroughly considering the situation they would like to take a bit more time to make their decision. Director Butler wanted to make Council aware of the situation and asked for them to make him aware if they had any objection to the extension.

The last item on the agenda was Fire Chief Gilman asking Council to pass a resolution proclaiming the week of October 4-10, 2015 Fire Prevention Week. Representatives from the Fire Department will be visiting schools to speak to chidren about the important of fire safety and having two fire escape plans. They will also have demonstrations with their firefighting equipment. The theme for this year’s Fire Prevention Week is “When it comes to smoke alarms, it’s about location, location, location.”

Council passed the resolution.

With no further business before the Council, Council President Madigan adjourned the meeting at 8:52 P.M.

Christopher Bindel

I have been a Lakewood resident my entire life and have been covering the Council meetings for the LO since March of 2009. I am a former Mayoral appointee to the Citicens Advisory Committee, a Council appointee to the Board of Zoning Appeals, on the Board of Directors for Pillars of Lakewood, and President of Eaters of Lakewood.

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Volume 11, Issue 20, Posted 11:29 AM, 09.29.2015