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8 <br /> 1 Commissioner Jacobs said it may be good to provide a disclaimer somewhere <br /> 2 referencing this point. He is unsure how one can know whether it works without trying it. <br /> 3 Jim Northup said one can have parallel providers. <br /> 4 Commissioner Price asked if clarification could be provided regarding who owns the <br /> 5 services/equipment. <br /> 6 John Roberts said the County will not own the equipment, but is the owner of the site <br /> 7 (e.g.: tower). <br /> 8 Commissioner Price asked if the County bows out of this process, once the services are <br /> 9 set up. <br /> 10 Jim Northup said the County will always have an interest in the success of this project, <br /> 11 but once the contract is executed, the County will only be looking at performance monitors, and <br /> 12 making sure performance targets are hit to insure future payment. <br /> 13 Chair Dorosin referred to the area on the map where many are underserved, due to the <br /> 14 lack of vertical assets. He asked if that is a critically underserved area, can the County <br /> 15 consider building vertical assets in this area. <br /> 16 Jim Northup said the County has been doing communication tower studies with <br /> 17 Emergency Services independently of this, and if two birds can be killed with one stone, the <br /> 18 County will attempt to do so. He said a strata of these towers has been reserved for the County <br /> 19 to enable a low barrier for entry for a company to put something on the tower to improve <br /> 20 broadband. He said it is not just an issue of having the vertical asset, but being able to get <br /> 21 broadband to the vertical asset. <br /> 22 Commissioner Marcoplos asked if there is a minimum tower height that would be <br /> 23 required. <br /> 24 Jim Northup said about 100 feet tall. <br /> 25 Commissioner Marcoplos asked if the challenge is finding a space where this does not <br /> 26 stick out. <br /> 27 Jim Northup said no, the challenge is just finding a site. <br /> 28 Commissioner Marcoplos asked if satellite technology will work in the near future. <br /> 29 Jim Northup said this will not solve the rural broadband issue, as there is a bandwidth <br /> 30 limit. He said within this model, there is no bandwidth limit. He said this is an affordable <br /> 31 solution for rural residents. <br /> 32 <br /> 33 PUBLIC COMMENT: <br /> 34 Tony Blake said he was pleased to be a part of the request for proposal (RFP) team, <br /> 35 and he supports this solution. He thinks that the County should pencil something into the <br /> 36 Capital Investment Plan (CIP) for expansion. He said another issue is digital literacy, and <br /> 37 scammers are a big problem. He said he hopes the County would ask Open Broadband to <br /> 38 provide this digital literacy resource to protect residents' privacy. <br /> 39 Bonnie Hauser said she lives in the unserved area, but she is excited about this pilot <br /> 40 program anyway. <br /> 41 Kevin McNamara said he is in support of this pilot project, and echoed the importance of <br /> 42 Internet speeds up to 25 megabytes. <br /> 43 Commissioner Jacobs thanked Jim Northup and the people that worked with him on this <br /> 44 project. <br /> 45 <br /> 46 A motion was made by Commissioner Price, seconded by Commissioner Jacobs for the <br /> 47 Board to approve and authorize the Manager to sign the attached contract. <br /> 48 <br /> 49 VOTE: UNANIMOUS <br /> 50 <br />