City hits slow lane for fiber-optic network

SANDPOINT — The city is in the slow lane to get on the fast track.

City Council agreed at a recent meeting to table a proposal to pay a consultant $24,500 to find ways to bring a fiber-optic network to Sandpoint and its neighbors.

It will take up the matter again today at 5:30 p.m. in the council chambers.

The proposal to spend the cash to hire US MetroNets has bumped through two committees, including urban renewal and the city’s administrative committee, since the Bonner County Economic Development Corporation was turned down in July for a $37 million federal stimulus grant that would have paid for the fiber optics in a rural broadband network serving Boundary and Bonner counties.

US MetroNets worked on the two-county proposal with BCEDC.

Since being passed over for federal money, the BCEDC narrowed its focus from a two-county network to one that includes local communities from Kootenai to Dover.

But the original proposal, even before it was expanded to include the state’s northernmost region in an effort to be more attractive to federal spending, was intensely local.

Some council members still prefer it that way.

“My suggestion was that we look at other options, to possibly position the city of Sandpoint in a more advantageous place,” Councilwoman Carrie Logan said. “My interest is in serving the economic interests of Sandpoint.”

Logan asked the council to consider a one-city option rather than a four-city approach to getting high speed access.

“The original model was for service to Sandpoint,” Logan said. “Maybe we need to go back to square one.”

The consultants, US MetroNets, will give a presentation today, while other options for providing service will be discussed at a Sept. 2 meeting.

Council member John Reuter agrees that all options should be considered, but his gut feeling is for moving ahead swiftly with US MetroNets, and in cooperation with neighboring cities.

“I heard people suggest to perhaps exclude our neighbors, but I don’t agree with that,” Reuter said. “I don’t think there is any intrinsic value in going it alone.”

He thinks the most cost effective way is to build a network with the help, and dollars, of neighboring towns.

Such a network, he said, because it has more users, would likely be cheaper to build and provide service with lower rates to customers.

“I think the city should do whatever is the most cost efficient and fastest way to get high speed Internet to businesses and residences,” he said. “That’s how I’ll make my decision on what the best course of action is.”

For now, the course includes a hiatus from decision making.

“Instead of plowing ahead, we’re taking two weeks here,” he said. “No one ever made a worse decision by learning more.”

Building a broadband network here is supposed to provide jobs and diversify the economy by providing high speed Internet to entities ranging from school districts, rural health care service providers, libraries and border security to living rooms.

Although the broad, $37 million proposal was not funded, a lot of groundwork was laid for a smaller, less-costly initiative, Karl Dye, executive director of BCEDC, said.

The BCEDC, in conjunction with the city, as well as the urban renewal district, plans to use the information already gathered as a foundation in its efforts to get broadband to Sandpoint and maybe the surrounding communities.

“That’s what everyone is in agreement about,” Reuter said. “We need high speed Internet to be competitive in years to come.”