Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Meeting Agenda 01_24_08

St. Lawrence County
Information Technology Advisory Committee
Meeting Agenda
1/24/08, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
2nd Floor Conference Rm, Public Safety Building, Canton, NY

1) Welcome New Committee Members & Meeting Attendees

2) Review/accept minutes from 12/20/07 meeting.

3) Committee Organization for 2008:
Structure
Membership
Meeting times/date/format
2008 Goals

4) Project Reports:
SLC IT Work Plan –Review status & updates
1. Develop Strategic Plan for Universal Broadband Coverage
2. Develop Plan for awarding $200k Broadband Grant
3. Create Broadband Access Map to Establish Baseline & Target Areas
Report on status of garnering info from random addresses
Report on Survey of SLC Residents for availability of telecom services (Laura)
4. Explore other Grant Funding for Broadband Initiatives
a. RD Grant
b. NEW! NYS Universal Broadband Initiative
5. Assist County Website Committee with Re-Design
6. Assist County Telephone System Committee
7. Evaluate Webcasting for County Meetings

Old Business:
Service issues at Newton Falls Paper Mill
(J Demart, R Fountain, L Perry)

Application to NYS Universal Broadband Access Grant

New Business:


Questions & Discussion

Action Items for Next Meeting

Next Meeting: Date, Time, Location TBA

12-20-07 Meeting Minutes

St. Lawrence County
Information Technology Advisory Committee
December 20, 2007 2:00 pm
Location: Newtown Falls Fine Paper Company

Meeting Minutes

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

1. Completed introductions of Plant staff and committee members

2. Reviewed Meeting Minutes – No comments of changes noted

3. Joe DeMart provided an overview of plant’s history, goals and technological hurdles:
History/Background
· 7 years ago plant was “shuttered”; left trained workforce and significant assets intact
· Restarted 115 year old Plant in 2/07
· 97 new jobs will have been created by the end of August 2007
· 200 tons of paper produced per day
· Performance is exceeding expectations and paper quality is “surprising everyone”
· Plant owns 4300 acres of wood basket
· Goal is to startup #3 paper machine which will create more jobs and bring work force to 120
· Transport – lack of railroad is not an issue; 16 trucks are in and out of Plant per day
· Cost of fuel is an issue of concern and Plant is beginning to explore options for utilizing biomass. Boiler is not presently suited for alternative fuel.
· $2.6 MM capital plan for next year includes some clean up of roadside. Plant has $800k allotment for telecom infrastructure including software and automated controls
· 340 vendors; 60% within 100 miles of Plant
· $200-$300k per month spent with these vendors
Technology Issues
· Reliability issues with voice and datafax; 1 of 2 T1 lines have never worked
· Telecom and Cat-5 infrastructure within the Plant is not an issue; production system is managed through some wireless and would like to pilot Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology
· Verizon has been unresponsive to addressing problem. Plant has written letters but not filed PSC incidents
· Verizon was supposed to put 2 new line sections in today (12/20) and switch over to them which they say will correct the issue. Others say problem won’t be corrected until bundle is replaced between Star Lake and Plant. Verizon gave Plant quote of $192k to replace T1 line replacement of copper.
· Survey of line performed by DANC indicates that more than single section of line will need to be replaced to correct issue.
Goal
· Reliable, redundant, robust telecommunication and data system for Plant
· Without it employees can’t do distance learning, order losses will continue, overall business negatively impacted
· Would like to explore call center/partnering and/or other broader opportunities to share secondary system with community

4. Project Reports
Discussion around utilizing Newton Falls as pilot project for rolling out universal broadband; structure grant application general enough to incorporate as many local areas (Star Lake, Cranberry Lake, etc. ) as possible; Laura will work on grant and pull in other committee resources as needed. Grant has expedited timeline.
Jon Montan handed out link to map http://www.cp.st-lawrence.ny.us/Planning/InformaionTechnologyCommittee.html
Other updates tabled due to time

5. Comments from the Chair
Laura mentioned that County Legislature is formalizing committee
Laura asked for suggestions on meeting format, etc. for the next year and mentioned that she would be needing some additional help leading meetings, etc. as she is expecting in the Spring

6. Organization
Tabled due to time