SiFi Networks, an Internet company out of New Jersey, may get its chance to prove that micro trenching and laying fiber optic cable in a city like Saratoga Springs is viable.
After a contentious debate on July 20 in which Commissioner of Finance Michele Madigan expressed frustration that the process had taken eight years in total and three since the city signed an initial agreement, Commissioner of Public Works Anthony “Skip” Scirocco said the entire city council was in violation of the city charter over the vote.
Nonetheless, the council voted 4 to 1 to approve amendments to the agreement.
Scirocco warned he would come to the next city council meeting with a presentation to show why the vote was improper. Calls to Scirocco’s office for clarification went unanswered.
SiFi still needs to agree to the approved changes to the agreement, but Madigan said in an interview today: "I believe they are willing to agree to it.”
If SiFi also approves the changes, they will begin work soon, looking, with the city, to find a suitable location for the test. It will run along both sides of two separate roadways for a total of 10,000 feet of cable.
SiFi will pay for all of the construction and implementation. To lay the cable, they will dig microtrenches, narrow, shallow trenches along the edge of roadways or sidewalks. They place the cable in a conduit inside the trench and fill it with special resins to hold it all in place. The contract says they will work with the city in placement of junction boxes on city telephone poles or similar locations. From those main lines of cable, they can bring fiber to homes and businesses.
The system, called FOCUS, will be in place by mid-November according to the documents on the city’s website and the test will run through the end of April in order to see if the system survives a Saratoga winter.
SiFi is also footing at least part of the bill for a point-of-contact in the Department of Public Works. The company will pay $10,000 per month to the city to defray costs of having that person.
If the test is a failure at meeting the “standard measures” of the project, SiFi will remove equipment and repair roads and sidewalks.
Scirocco has said in past meetings that his engineers needed to look more closely at the contract and the process. He has expressed skepticism about the system’s functionality in the deep cold of January and February.
Madigan admitted that maybe the system would not work, but it was time to try.
If the test proves OK, the company will build it out.
The company will provide the high-speed fiber optic cable to homes and businesses throughout the city, said SiFi's president, Scott Bradshaw, in a city council meeting last April. They build the cable network, but they are not the internet service provider, the company that allows computers and phones to use the internet. Bradshaw said residences in other cities have gotten internet service for about $60 per month and businesses for about $100 per month.
”At the end of the day, this community has one internet provider that is wildly inconsistent and wildly expensive and we need an alternative,” Commissioner of Public Safety, Robin Dalton said before she voted to approve. “At the end of the day, we need another option for internet.”