04-26-07 Meeting Minutes

St. Lawrence County
Information Technology Advisory Committee

Meeting Minutes
4/26/07, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
2nd Floor Conf Room, Public Safety Building, Court St., Canton

Present: Sign-in sheet handed out. (Laura Perry has on file)

Review/accept minutes from 3/22/07 meeting. Minutes were accepted

Meeting Dates were set for the year: Meetings will be at 2:00 PM generally on the 4th Thursday of the month
5/24, 6/28, 7/26, 8/23, 9/27, 10/25, 11/15*, 12/20
*meet on 3rd Thurs this month because of Thanksgiving

SLC Service Map Initiative:

• Phil Deleel reviewed the service maps for Verizon Wireless and Cingular. It was indicated in the discussions that the Time Warner Map should be forthcoming.

Laura Perry updated the committee on her findings from the past month.

• Laura contacted Verizon for a list of DSL coverage. But indicated that they are hesitant to provide this information in the complete format we desire because they deem the information to be proprietary.


• Laura also brought forward some information from the Connect Kentucky Initiative. The discussion centered on the process used in Kentucky for mapping resources, partnerships, and funding. Kristin Hall of connectkentucky.org indicated to Laura that they would be willing to share information with our group. The committee decided to go forward and get more information on the Kentucky Initiative. Laura will try and schedule a discussion between Kristin Hall and our committee via phone at a future meeting.

The committee discussed ways to get information on coverage since it appears some vendors are reluctant to share this information freely with our committee. Suggestions were as follows:

• Surveys to end-users.


• State and Local Government Pressure. Including using the tie-in to economic development to leverage this pressure.

The committee concluded that we need to complete the assessment phase then get the results mapped on GSI.

News from the Chair: Laura Perry

• Laura conveyed the content of a conversation with Ronald Brach, ED of NYS Legislative Commission on Rural Resources
  -NYS Universal Broadband Access initiative. There is 5 million dollars available to develop Broadband Access Plans. This includes 2.5 million for downstate, and 2.5 million for upstate.
  -ESD Report – strategies for expanding high-speed Internet access, was due at the end of March. This should be out soon.

Update on County telephone system: (Natalie Aldrich):

• Natalie reviewed the Powerhouse Consulting Report that was the basis for the last phone system RFP in 2001. The results of this RFP were rejected by the Board of Legislators at that time.


• Natalie also reviewed how the process has gone forward since that time. This includes information meetings with vendors in 2005, and the inclusion of $400,000 in the 2007 County budget to replace the phone system.


• The committee discussed the use of consultants in the process. County Staff indicated that there was a limited amount of in-house resources to design a system, and that a consultant could fill in these gaps. The committee suggested that the County utilize outside resources more in terms of a Project Manager rather than design consultants. This would allow for the County to utilize its’ in-house resources to the greatest degree possible.

County Copier Management Program: (Mike Cunningham)

• Mike asked the committee for their experiences in shifting printing from small, expensive to operate printers to more cost efficient networked copiers. Various members of the committee shared their experiences with the copier management programs in their organizations.

Next Meeting: 5/24 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm


Meeting Adjourned