03/26/09 Meeting Minutes

St. Lawrence County Information Technology Advisory Committee
03/26/09 Meeting Minutes
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Location: 2nd Floor Conference Room, Human Services Center

Laura Perry called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m.

1. Welcome New Committee Members & Meeting Attendees
Introductions – Present:

2. Review/accept minutes from 1/22/09 meeting
The committee made no changes to the 1/22/09 minutes.

3. Presentation: Dan Churchill, RidgeviewTel -
Dan Churchill and Vince Jordan (via voice call) of RidgeviewTel made a presentation to the committee regarding their intent to submit a proposal to the NTIA for a broadband expansion project in St. Lawrence County. They have prepared a plan which involves a build out of 92 miles of fiber which would be extensions on the exiting DANC network. Their plan builds into 11 business districts, includes 29 wimax sites which would serve a 2 mile radius for each site with wireless internet access. The cost totals $6 million dollars. Their plan includes a partnership with DANC to build out the fiber. The presentation included an online view of their proposed service coverage, along with Q&A’s from committee members. RidgeviewTel is asking for 4 things from the committee: 1) recommendations on where to provide service, 2) recommendations for a model community to provide fiber to the home. The primary criteria are to identify communities that have Internet access only via satellite (no other wireless or wireless high speed service throughout the community). 3) assist them in conducting a survey to gather data on where demand for broadband service exists. 4) formal support for their application.

Following the formal presentation the committee discussed reactions to the presentation and the committee’s next steps. The committee scheduled a follow-up subcommittee meeting for 4/1 at 10am to review in greater detail the proposed service coverage. Ridgeview agreed to provide greater detail regarding the proposed service coverage and the overall proposal. Dan will forward to Jon Montan electronic maps and forward additional info to Laura. In regards to #3, it was decided the committee’s survey conducted in 08 is sufficient at this time. No further action at this time. In regards to #4, the committee decided to delay decision of support pending the following:
• review of additional information provided by RidgeviewTel
• DANC decision whether or not to proceed
• a review of responses from other service providers – Committee will invite service providers to share plans with the committee regarding proposals to NTIA. Committee will review to identify best solution for SLC. Laura will issue a letter to service providers and issue a press release about this.

4. SLC IT Director position – Laura informed the committee that the SLC BOL intends to appoint a new director at their April 6th board meeting. The new director’s name is Rob Hack, he comes from central NY, and he has a broad range of experience as CIO of several major corporations. The search committee completed a review of over 60 applications, and unanimously endorsed Rob as the successful candidate. The committee can look forward to having Rob join our efforts in the future.

5. IT Committee’s strategic plan – Laura shared that the Strategic Plan is nearly complete. All sections have been fleshed out and revisions have been completed. There is a need to review the current document for final editorial corrections and any final suggestions for change. The document will be posted to Google Doc’s. Laura asked all committee members to review the posted document to make final suggestions for change. Helene Melon volunteered to do a close reading for editorial changes. Committee should expect to formally adopt final document at April’s full committee meeting. Plans are then to present it to the BOL for review, presentation and adoption as SLC’s IT Strategic Plan.

6. Newton Falls Grant – SLC Planning office is in receipt of a contract from New York State. Contract negotiations have commenced and more will be forthcoming in the near future (we hope).

7. New Visions Power – Rick made contact with the CEO of New Visions Power, Carmen Branca. He has agreed to meet with the committee and discuss current plans for service deployments in New York. He is available to meet with us at 11am on 4/23. Committee members present agreed to change April’s meeting time to 11 to accommodate the speaker.

8. Stimulus Money – Rick Johnson is active with the State’s broadband initiative committee meetings. They are currently working to organize a statewide method for developing a statewide broadband access map. He is waiting to hear how & where to submit info. The committee also talked about the availability of this funding and identifying ways in which we might encourage applications to it. NYS is hosting a meeting on 3/30 in Albany regarding OFT’s plans for universal broadband. Tom Sauter indicated that DANC will have a representative present at the meeting. The committee will review OFT’s & NTIA’s websites for upcoming announcements. The committee aired a few ideas, no action items resulted at this time.

At 4:00 pm, agenda items 9 – 13 tabled until April’s meeting.

Next Meeting: Thursday, April 23, 2009 at 11:00 am – NOTE NEW TIME!

The meeting adjourned at 4:10 PM.