HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/06/2006 � �
Telecommunications Advisory Committee
City of Apple Valley
March 6, 2006
7:00 P.M. Municipal Center
Minutes
1. Call to Order
Chair David Westbrook called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
Members Present: Rollin Bible, Jerry Brown, Scott Hugstad-Vaa, John Magnusson,
David Westbrook
Members Absent: Dale Rodell
Others Present: Charles Grawe, Nathan Bang, David Asp, Todd Oliver
2. Approval of Agenda
Mr. Westbrook asked for changes to the agenda and there were none offered.
MOTION: Mr. Magnusson moved, second by Mr. Brown, to approve the agenda as
presented. Motion passed unanimously.
3. Approval Minutes of December 5, 2005
MOTION: Mr. Bible moved, second by Mr. Hugstad-Vaa, to approve the minutes of
December 5, 2005. Motion passed unanimously.
4. Update on Audit Review with the Cities of Lakeville Farnun�ton and Rosemount
Mr. Grawe said the joint powers Commission tabled the matter until a proposed
settlement between Charter and the City of Lakeville was finalized. Mr. Grawe said he
believed the matter was on the Lakeville Council agenda on the same night as this
meeting, so he was not yet aware of the terms of the settlement.
5. Presentation on Apple Valley and Dakota Countv Fiber Projects
Mr. Bang provided a brief introduction to the Apple Valley cooperative fiber optic
project with several other cities, school districts, and Dakota County. The project
interconnects many of the City of Apple Valley buildings at seven general locations.
Many of the buildings are currently connected with T-1 lines, but fiber will provide a
higher capacity connection as the volume of data between buildings increases. The
conduit has been installed and most of the fiber pulled, but terminations and testing
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remain to be completed. Mr. Bible asked about connectivity for the other buildings not
included in the project. Mr. Bang said other solutions such as leased lines or wireless
connectivity could be implemented. Mr. Oliver asked what types of applications are
driving the City's need for bandwidth. Mr. Bang noted a number of non-public safety
applications with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) functions, such as the
Pictometry application, use very large databases.
Mr. Asp explained that the State of Minnesota manages some of the fiber infrastructure
owned by the County. He briefly explained some of the networks of which Dakota
County is a part. He noted that a nine-county Metro area public safety group is looking
at a 700 MHz data network to compliment the 800 MHz radio network. He noted that
such a network would be owned by government units for government services and would
not be used for use by the general public. He said he believes it would be possible to
develop partnerships between governments and private communications providers to
provide wireless services to the public. Mr. Oliver asked why Mr. Asp has a mix of
government owned and privately owned connections in the network. Mr. Asp said there
are multiple paths providing redundancy and back-up.
Mr. Bible asked if the City of Apple Valley has a plan for wireless service. Mr. Bang
said the IT Division is working on a pilot program for wireless service for the City's
public safety employees. There is also consideration to providing some public Internet
access within City buildings so that visitor's making presentations can pull material up
through the Internet. In general, the IT Division has been gathering information about
wireless technologies and wireless trends, but there have been no staff proposals to
provide wireless service to the public at this time.
6. Set Possible Dates for Meetin�s with Citv Council
Mr. Grawe said the City Council has requested to set-up meetings with the advisory
committees. Mr. Grawe asked for possible dates that could work for the Committee and
noted that Thursday Council meeting nights might be dates to consider since the Council
would be meeting anyway. The group suggested a meeting on 6:00 p.m. on April 13`�'.
7. l Quarter Complaint Log
Mr. Grawe said there were no first quarter complaints.
8. 1 Quarter Coordinator's Report
Mr. Grawe briefly discussed events in the first quarter. He noted that Mr. Moore was
unable to attend as he was working to implement the digital recording in one of the
control rooms.
9. E-Commerce and Business Development Issues
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Mr. Grawe noted there were several new wireless articles distributed with the packet.
Mr. Bible indicated that this would be a potential topic for discussion during the meeting
with the City Council.
10. Other
There were no other discussion items.
11. Adj ourn
MOTION: Mr. Brown moved, second by Mr. Magnusson to adjourn the meeting.
Motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 8:04 p.m.