Council hears of new potential ISP

     Perhaps by the Spring of 2018, Monticello city residents will have an additional option when it comes to high-speed Internet service.

     During the Nov. 6 city council meeting, Jerry Pasker visited with the council and City Administrator Doug Herman in regards to fiber lines Pasker is having buried.

     Currently, Pasker said lines are being trenched in conjunction with an Alliant Energy project in the Vanournys Addition, on Timberline Road and associated neighborhoods.

     “I’ve been researching this for several years,” said Pasker.

     Alliant is working to bury aboveground utilities, and Pasker said it was the perfect opportunity to get in the game.

     “Maybe by the Spring of 2018, we’ll be able to start hooking up houses over in that neighborhood with fiber-direct,” he said.

     With Pasker’s fiber conduit going in the city’s right of way, Council member Johnny Russ questioned why the city wasn’t contacted beforehand.

     “How come we’re finding out about this after the fiber has been in?” asked Russ.

     “We didn’t know we were doing it,” answered Pasker.

     He said the project was up in the air for a while, and with Alliant in the area, it was the right time to act.

     Pasker admitted his team wanted to “sit on this as long as we possibly could” to keep it under wraps where the other three local Internet service providers (ISP) are concerned: Mediacom, Century Link, and ComElec.

     “A lot of it was trying to keep a competitive edge,” he said.

     Pasker explained that fiber-to-the-home “is like a whole different level of Internet.

     “It’s totally future-proof,” he said in terms of what the future holds and expectations with high speeds for streaming Internet TV.

     Pasker said with fiber Internet, homes could receive 10 to 100 gigabytes versus the 100 megabytes other ISPs are currently offering with copper-wired service.

     “As time moves on, it’s just going to keep getting faster and faster because fiber optics is the way of the future,” he said. “Everybody else is still using copper and you can only push that so much.”

     Pasker said his service would cost customers close to what they might be paying now, but much faster service.

     While the burying of Pasker’s fiber conduits are in the works, he said it’ll take some time to actually service the homes in the Vanournys Addition. As far as where the project moves next, Pasker said that’s up to who signs on. He is planning to see this service last for 50 years, if not longer.

     Herman said the reason for putting Pasker’s project on the council’s agenda was because people have started asking questions in the community.

     “We need to decide from a city standpoint how this goes forward because we only have so much right of way,” said Herman. “And every time you put something in your right of way, when we go to do a street project, it’s one more thing to work around and one more expense.” Herman said the city’s right of way is also limited.

     “There is a value to that right of way,” he added.

     Other ISPs pay the city a franchise fee for right of way use. Herman said he, the council and Pasker would eventually need to work together an agreement with a project like this.

     “There are some things the council will need to figure out,” Herman suggested. “But I do think what Jerry is proposing has value to the community.”

In other city business

     • The council voted to invest $5,000 to contract with Simmering-Cory, Inc. and Iowa Codification to update the city’s Code of Ordinances.

     This will allow the city to update the code to new software, as well as provide an online and searchable version of the code. This feature would be helpful for city staff/employees as well as the general public. The city would also receive 15 hard copies of the updated and cleaned up code book.

     “There are many ordinances that need to be cleaned up because they’re outdated or not needed,” commented Herman.

     • The council approved the third pay request to Taylor Construction, Inc. in the amount of $189,170.47 in regards to the E. First Street Bridge replacement project.

     City Engineer Patrick Schwickerath said the concrete deck has been poured, as well as the approaches to the bridge. Temporary seeding will be done yet this fall, with permanent seeding in the spring.

     “The bridge should be open in early December,” offered Schwickerath.

     • The council approved the third pay request to Eastern Iowa Excavating & Concrete, Inc. in the amount of $31,589.21 in regards to the Main Street overlay project. This amount also includes the second change order in the amount of $6,101. The change order is related to additional pilot cars for traffic control and the relocation of conduit.

     Council member Tom Yeoman questioned the need for additional pilot cars. Schwickerath explained the project included just an estimate for pilot cars.

     “The DOT didn’t object to the increased use of pilot cars,” concluded Schwickerath.

     • The council approved the first pay request to Eastern Iowa Excavating & Concrete, Inc. in the amount of $69,707.05 in regards to the E. Oak Street water main replacement project. They also approved the first change order in the amount of $2,878.80 related to additional full-depth patching for an additional, unrelated water main in the same vicinity.

     • The council approved the second pay request to Schaus-Vorhies in the amount of $23,157.20 in regards to the Monticello Airport Ten-T Hangar Project.

     “This project has been slow to get off the ground,” reported Herman. “But there has been work done.” He said a big portion of this pay request is related to mobilization of the contractor.

     Schwickerath said the contractor is a third of the way finished with the trench footings. Grading and sub-grading work for the flooring will begin after the footings are all in place.

     • All of the fire hydrants within the City of Monticello have been flushed. Public Works Director Brant LaGrane said there are roughly 215 hydrants. Only one hydrant was found to be not in working order and was marked out-of-service.

     Herman informed the council that a number of small water mains connected to these hydrants would not produce adequate water for fighting a fire. He said the next step is for Public Works to meet with the Monticello Fire Department to develop a plan to map out and/or mark the hydrants so it’s clear as to which ones are located on adequate-sized mains and which are not.