NOTICE, HENDERSON CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING


The Henderson City Council will hold a special meeting on Wednesday, April 25, 2012 starting at 7:00 P.M. at the meeting room of the Henderson Community Building located at 600 Main Street in Henderson for the purpose of taking input and discussing available options and information related to fiber, data and other communications topics in and for the City of Henderson. The Henderson City Council also plans to take action (vote on) a proposed resolution related to entering into a joint powers cooperative for planning and development of communications system and any amendments thereto as well as a resolution approving the proposed financing for the Renville-Sibley Fiber Cooperative as related to resolution referred to above. All individuals, companies, groups, etc. will be provided the opportunity to provide either oral or written comments and input during the meeting prior to any vote occurring.

I wont be able to attend the meeting, and I wont claim to know the financial risks if it passes. But I do know, businesses, along with average citizens will benefit from faster speeds, and another choice. I know what we have currently sucks, and by bringing in a good option, not only would we be getting the better service, but the competition would need to improve, and compete with prices.

According to the MPR NewsCut blog, All Things Considered will discuss the Sibley County broadband topic this afternoon. It does not mention what time the specific topic will be addressed.
MPR NewsCut Blog

"All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - The Sibley County commissioners will vote tomorrow on whether to join what could end up being a $70 million publicly-owned broadband project. Many residents in central Minnesota and other rural parts of the state, deal with less-than-modern Internet speeds. MPR's Dan Wilson will have the story."

It looks as though everyone else is improving their networks.




Will Henderson follow?

At first I was wildly supportive of this effort, but now that the financial picture looks clearer, I'm having some serious concerns.

It sounds like the County is 60-90 days away from actually voting whether to commit to the $100-million+ price tag. Do our counties even have enough residents to support this cost without overburdening us and our neighbors, many of whom are elderly and on fixed incomes? Will an increase in financial burden on businesses counteract any advantage that FTTH will provide them, creating a competitive disadvantage rather than a competitive advantage over businesses in neighboring counties?

The city of Arlington voted NOT to go with this FTTH project, but it seems they may still be on the hook if the project defaults. Even though the funding would be by revenue bond (so that property taxes cannot be raised to cover the cost) they can raise water, sewer and electric rates to cover costs if there are not enough subscribers to FTTH. If that happens, it would not matter whether or NOT you subscribe to the service.

It seems that even if we say "no", we could still end up paying for this. Is this the right economic climate in which to undertake such an endeavor? Would the MAJORITY of residents and businesses receive enough benefit from FTTH to warrant the financial costs? These are my concerns.

I like the idea of having FTTH, but I don't think this is the right way to go about getting it.

If Henry Ford hadn't taken a risk and looked to the future, I would've ridden a horse to work.

Upon reading the $100 million+ post I spoke with an elected official about this, because it appeared as though it's getting more difficult to sift through the information and the mis-information. The elected official said, and I quote, "this is the kind of stuff that is fusing people against this."

I have never been one to trust a polititian, but lets stick to real information. A couple things that were told to me ...

#1 - it's $69 million, not $100+ million (per the elected official, who just last week was in an operations meeting for this project. Unless another $31+ million has been added to the tab since)
#2 - tax payers are only on the hook if after year four the project isn't cash-flowing. At that point communities can decide if they will remain on board. At that point they would have to dip into their reserves, or levy some dollars to pick up their portion of the tab. Communities can also say "we are out" at this point, there-by absorbing no financial committment from that point forward. However, the communities that remain would be left to pick up the tab for those that default.

That is how it was explained to me. I think there is an initial investment for each community. It could very well be that even the elected officials from about the county are explaining the burden of this thing differently, because they themselves understand it differently.

And if you take Gruenhagen at his word, the State's coin purse is bursting at the seams with surplus after surplus, unemployment down to 5.7 percent, jobs being created on every street corner. We can't contain the prosperity.

Since I really dont follow the city govt much, or any govt for that matter. Any idea which way the city of Henderson is leaning on this? Are they going to run away like Arlington? Or are they going to gamble that it is something that is going to brighten our futures?

One thing you could do to find out is come to the meeting and ask.