Charles City is moving forward with fiber to residence broadband plan

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

Details are pending, but overall Charles City appears to be moving toward a broadband internet utility.

The Charles City Broadband and Telecommunications Commission met Tuesday evening to discuss a feasibility study from Lookout Point Communications of St. Paul that had been presented at the commission’s previous meeting, in December.

“We want to move forward with fiber to the home,” said commission member Josh Mack, referring to a broadband system that would run fiber optic cable to residences and businesses. “There’s a ton of stuff we have to work out before we move forward.”

The commission is still considering the details of the project, and members discussed where they would get service or connect with an existing municipal system.

The commission will recommend to the council to move forward with a fiber to home project, pending further review of the particulars by the commission.

Also at the meeting, Justin DeVore, director of the city’s public access network, or PAN, presented a report to the commission, which oversees the network.

Charlescitypan.com has an archive of Charles City PAN videos, that are also available on youtube.com.

“If there’s public comment we don’t broadcast that,” DeVore said, due to city policy.

The commission extended DeVore’s time as PAN director, and reviewed it’s coming budget as well during the meeting.

The resignation of broadband commission member Brad McKenzie was announced during the meeting.

At their previous meeting, commission member Sarah Downing said she will be resigning from the commission later on because she will be changing her residence during 2018.

New Mayor Dean Andrews will appoint a new member of the commission to replace Downing and in the meantime Downing will replace McKenzie until Downing has her new residence finalized.

The next commission meeting will be 4 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8.