Timeline fills in details on Charles City fiber broadband project

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A revised fiber broadband system timeline was discussed at the Charles City Telecommunications Utility Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday afternoon.

The broad strokes — funding completed next month, construction beginning early next year, first customers online toward the end of the year then wide availability in 2022 — remained the same as discussed at the previous meeting.

But more details were added and some details were adjusted after a minor disagreement on timing occurred among a couple of the board’s consultants at that previous meeting.

“We had a couple of meetings with the consulting team about the timeline that would be put into the official statement operating document,” said Todd Kielkopf, a finance and business consultant who was also named interim general manager at the last meeting.

“We worked through some of the minutia of working backwards from the December 2021 date for full operations with limited customer base, with billing operational. So that’s still the date,” he said.

The project timeline is part of the information package that will be available to bidders when the telecom offers to issue approximately $17 million in revenue bonds in the coming weeks.

“The business plan is built on the expectation that funding can be achieved by November 2020,” the document says.

Staffing of the telecom would begin with general management, particularly a general manager offered a contract yet this month, then technical staff for electronics and optics, followed by customer service management, “then others as appropriate,” the timeline states.

“The plan targets conduit construction as early in the spring of 2021 as possible, weather allowing and in particular as the ground conditions thaw. Purchasing of electronic and optics shall begin in February with proof of concept trials anticipated by September 2021,” the timeline says.

“Rollout for customer installs will follow an initial pilot starting in October and develop momentum in mid-to-late 1st quarter 2022,” it says.

The timeline is broken out into five categories: data center and customer service center, fiber-to-the-home outside plant, transport network, drops and installations, and operations.

The data center and customer service center will be created in the former City Tap building, which the telecom purchased. The timeline calls for construction beginning next March and completed in July, with electronic equipment to run and manage the fiber optic broadband system installed August through October next year.

The timeline for the outside plant — the underground fiber cable and other equipment needed to deliver the internet, television and phone services to subscribers — calls for the contract to be signed yet this month with low bidder ADB Utility Construction of Missouri.

Buried conduit construction would begin as soon as possible in the spring, likely in March, fiber optic cable run through the conduits beginning in June, the homes of “pilot customers” connected in October with testing in November and the conduit and fiber installation complete by December 2021.

The transport network — the fiber optic ring that will connect to New Hampton in the east and Mason City in the west and provide redundancy in case service is cut off from either direction — will be constructed next spring and summer, both beginning in March with completion of the east leg expected in June and completion of the west leg completed in August, the timeline says.

The campaign for potential consumers to express interest in subscribing to any of the services is planned for January, with drops to homes and businesses with the highest “take rate” beginning in August, and eventually reaching the entire city limits in 2022.

Kielkopf said he and the other consultants have experience already starting broadband networks in such communities as Pella, Waverly and Indianola, and that will let them “leverage the expertise” and move more quickly setting up the Charles City system.

Also, he said, because the Telecommunication Utility Board of Trustees has the authority to plan and run the system on its own, it can make decisions quickly and move forward without having to refer to a city council or other board.

“We have a focused utility board. We can have a streamlined process,” Kielkopf said.

At the previous board meeting, consultant Eric Lampland of Lookout Point Communications expressed concern that the time required to decide on, order and receive needed equipment wasn’t adequately accounted for in the timeline.

But Kielkopf said Tuesday, “The consulting team has recently seen the latest offerings for similar type systems. That’s going to be favorable for Charles City to meet that December 2021 timeline.”

Lampland was not on the Zoom teleconference meeting Tuesday.

Board Chairperson Cheryl Erb said, “It sounds like all the issues were resolved.”

Also at the meeting Tuesday, the board of trustees:

• Discussed a potential employment contract with a general manager. There are two finalists who were interviewed for the position in June, and whose names have not been released to the public.

Brad Sloter, the Charles City city attorney who helped put together the contract, said the hope is that the telecom will be in a position to offer the contract to a general manager candidate in the coming weeks.

Still to be filled in are such items as salary, moving expenses and vacation benefits. The board has previously talked about a salary in the $125,000 to $140,000 annual range.

• Again went into closed session to talk about “financial information and pricing strategies” and “proprietary information.”

• Set the next meeting for 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13.