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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/21/1996 Telecommunications Advisory Committee City of Apple Valley October 21, 1996 6:30 P.M. City Hall Minutes 1. Call to Order The meeting was called to order at 6:35 by Chairperson Bible. Members Present: Dale Rodell, Rollin Bible, David Westbrook, Scott Hugstad-Vaa, John Magnusson, Jerry Brown Members Absent: Others Present: Lisa Washa, Gary Humphrey, Charles Grawe, Richard Kelley, Denis LaComb, Thomas Creighton, Jane Bremmer, Dennis Miranowski, Gary Shade 2. Minutes of July 25, 1996 The minutes of July 25, 1996, were approved unanimous (Mr. Rodell motion, second by Mr. Westbrook). 3. Introduction of New Members Mr. Bible introduced new committee members Jerry Brown and John Magnusson. Mr. Brown and Mr. Magnusson said a few brief words about themselves and their interest in the Committee. 4. PCS Introduction by Dennis Miranowski Public Works Director, Dennis Miranowski, made a presentation regarding PCS. He explained that PCS is a sweeping change in technology. In 1993, the FCC auctioned off 51 trading areas for PCS digital communication. PCS is more advanced than cellular technology and provides a clearer, greater enhanced signal for a lower cost. PCS providers are in the process of erecting antennas to begin service provision in the near future. Mr. Miranowski said that the City can view the antennas through two different roles-- regulator and developer. The City can exercise its regulatory authority and try to prohibit antennas in specified areas. The City can also encourage antennas in certain City-owned locations and benefit from the collected revenues for leased land. He explained that for example, a neighboring city collects about $150,000 annually in antenna revenues for one reservoir. Furthermore, when the FCC sold the markets, Congress passed legislation prohibiting cities from creating ordinances that prohibit antenna towers or prohibit PCS service. Thus, the City staff believe that the City should work with PCS providers to encourage location of towers on desired sites as a strategy to control the locations of the antenna towers. Staff identified several sites at the Longridge, Nordic, Valleywood, and Palomino reservoirs that the City will market to PCS providers. If these sites do not suite the needs of the providers, additional sites will need to be considered. Some cities have placed antenna towers in parks. City staff identified Hayes, Wildwood, Cedar Knolls, and Hagemeister parks as possible sites. The Central Maintenance Facility (CMF) is also a possible site. Mr. Miranowski explained that a 125 foot tower is currently located at the CMF which is owned by AT&T. Sprint has approached the City about collocating on the tower. Mr. Miranowski concluded that the City should adopt an ordinance the attract users to reservoirs and selected sites and should prepare lease agreements for these sites. Mr. Rodell asked if more antenna towers are required for PCS than cellular. Mr. Miranowski replied that cellular requires towers every 7 to 10 miles, while PCS requires towers every 2 miles. Mr. Bible asked if there are “holes” in the City that the currently identified sites do not cover. Mr. Miranowski responded that the possible holes are in the southern section of the City, much of which is not developed, and some of which is covered from sites in Rosemount. Mr. Humphrey stated that he wants to manage the antenna tower issue before it becomes a problem. He mentioned that there are numerous options, including municipal ownership of the towers, such as in White Bear Lake. Mr. Bible requested clarification of the Committee’s role in drafting an ordinance. Mr. Miranowski responded that he would like the Telecommunications Committee to review the draft ordinance before it appears before the Planning Commission. Mr. Bible requested clarification about the lease agreements that have been drafted. Mr. Miranowski responded that City staff have worked with the City Attorney. Ms. Jane Bremmer stated that she represents APT, a PCS provider, and said that APT is looking primarily for elevated sites and hospitable communities. She said that APT prefers not to build antenna towers due to the cost of construction, and that APT prefers to use existing facilities, such as roof tops. Ms. Bremmer said that APT plans to activate in February of 1997. Mr. Bible asked if APT typically asks the City for site locations. Ms. Bremmer responded that although there is a finite amount of space that can work for their grid, they appreciate identified sites because the grid can be steered to some extent. Mr. Tom Creighton added that he drafted the Burnsville and Eagan lease agreements and asked where the City got a model lease agreement. Mr. Miranowski responded that the City used the LMC model, the Burnsville and Eagan agreements, and other models to form a hybrid. Mr. Miranowski added that the City has retained the firm Montgomery and Watson for technical advise. Mr. Creighton asked what the timetable was for the zoning ordinance. Mr. Miranowski responded that he hoped to have it complete by the first of the year. Mr. Creighton warned that lease agreements signed before such time will be “grandfathered in” and may not be desired. 5. Franchise Renewal Discussions The people present for the discussion introduced themselves and identified their positions as they related to the discussions. Ms. Lisa Washa gave Mr. Bible a signed copy of the Standstill agreement. Mr. Bible explained that the City is putting together a public meeting to solicit public input regarding telecommunications needs. He added that since the Committee’s scope has been widened, so will the scope of the input derived from the public. Mr. Charles Grawe distributed a draft copy of letter soliciting input for the meeting. Ms. Washa asked if the meeting was to solicit input for franchise renewal only or for telecommunications in general. Mr. Bible responded that both would be solicited. Ms. Bremmer took issue with the implications in the letter that the Cable provider would also be a telecommunications provider in the future. Mr. Bible responded that the intent of the Committee is to broadly assess the telecommunications needs of the community, including cable. He said that the City can use its experts to decide which aspects of the needs are part of the cable franchise and which are not. He also said that the potential exists for the Cable provider to also provide high speed data transmission. Mr. Creighton added that only two sentences in the letter refer to Marcus. He suggested that a new paragraph start after the third sentence to help separate Marcus and telecommunications. Mr. Bible also suggested that the words “cable technology” in the third sentence be changed to “telecommunications technology”. Various Committee members referred to numerous articles suggesting that cable providers will also be telecommunications providers. Mr. Humphrey said that he wants to encourage the Cable company to provide alternative services. He cited an example where a local business left Apple Valley because the Telephone company could not provide the needed services. Ms. Bremmer responded that the current system is not capable of supporting telecommunications signals, hence the purpose of discussing a system rebuild. Mr. Creighton said that he would prepare questions that would facilitate the public discussion of the issues. He warned the Committee to discourage participants from engaging in conversations that would dominate the general discussion and conversations centered around specific technologies. Mr. Bible expressed his desire to start the renewal quickly. He explained that part of the renewal is conducting a needs assessment. He expressed his displeasure about the length of time necessary to complete the standstill agreement. Ms. Bremmer said that she shared Mr. Bible’s frustration over the time taken thus far and wished to begin meeting with the Negotiating Task Force. She explained that 75% of the franchise language is dictated by law and is not subject to negotiation. Mr. Grawe gave a brief update on the process of forming a joint powers agreement between Apple Valley, Rosemount, Lakeville, and Farmington. He explained that the cities hope to negotiate essentially as one unit with Marcus. Mr. Creighton added that the joint agreement could free up staff time and may speed the negotiations up. He said that he is preparing a document for the four cities outlining a franchise proposal. He also clarified that Marcus would still have four separate, but similar franchises. Ms. Washa expressed concern for the Farmington franchise which expires in 1997. Mr. Grawe added that he had talked with the Northern Dakota County Cable representative and learned that Continental Cable is already upgrading to 750 MHz. Mr. Bible expressed his interest in continuing the Apple Valley process regardless of the joint powers talks. Mr. Creighton said his draft documents should be ready shortly. The group agreed to set a meeting for Monday, November 18, 1996, at City Hall for the Negotiating Task Force to begin talks with Marcus. The Task Force will meet separately at 12:00 noon and meet with Marcus at 2:00 p.m.. 6. Review of the Third Quarter Complaint Log The Committee reviewed the third quarter complaint log. Ms. Washa explained that she instituted a new “hot gram” system which allows for faster response times. 7. City Home Page on World Wide Web Mr. Gary Shade made a presentation to the Committee regarding a home page on the World Wide Web. He believes that commerce is moving onto the Internet and that there will be a demand for on-line services, regardless of the means of providing on-line services. He showed several sample pages that he created for other customers. Mr. Shade explained that his basic package includes a domain name, six pages, and one year’s hosting services for $1,200 annually. This also includes 1 hour per month for page maintenance. Each additional hour is $50. Additional pages can be set up for $100 each. Mr. Shade explained that he does copyright all web pages to provide protection to the customer. One feature which could also be added is a link to an e-mail account so that the City could receive input and questions from the public through the page. Mr. Bible said that he visited Mr. Shades Web site several times and was impressed by the site design. He asked if Mr. Shade had done any other city web pages. Mr. Shade responded that he had not as of this time. Mr. Bible asked if Mr. Shade had examined the City’s kiosks and evaluated the information presented on the kiosks. Mr. Shade responded that he had examined the kiosks and believes them to be a starting point, but plans to greatly enhance the content for the Web page. Mr. Humphrey asked how Mr. Shade would determine what information would be provided on the site. Mr. Shade responded that he would talk to the customer and use information given to him by the customer. He would then work with the information to design a site. He prefers to provide his own graphic designs, rather than having the customer attempt to tell him how to design the page. Mr. Shade also provides all the maintenance of the completed page. Mr. Humphrey asked what would be required of City staff to administer the e-mail received and keep page information up-to-date. Mr. Shade explained that the City would probably need to designate a liaison who would check for new mail and respond to inquiries. Mr. Shade said that Department heads could simply e-mail him copies of updates for the pages. There was a brief discussion on other existing Web pages such as DTED, Dakota County, Apple Valley Fire Department and City Code vendors that could be used through hyper text links to essentially provide the City’s information without the City being responsible for maintaining the information. Mr. Bible said that he though it would serve the City well to have a home page and a domain name. He warned that there may be some political questions asked through e-mail which do not have answers which City staff will be able to provide. Mr. Humphrey suggested that an autoresponse be established that would explain the process for deciding political questions. A motion to recommend to the City Council approval of a web page proposal, including one year of hosting service, maintenance of a domain name, assessment and integration of existing kiosk information, identification of hyper links to other related organizations, and persistent frame technology, was approved 6-0 (Mr. Rodell motion, second by Mr. Westbrook). 8. Additional Items a) Mr. Dennis LaComb announced that Hook and Ladder will begin cablecast on Channel 21. Unlike Police Beat, which is in a magazine styled format, Hook and Ladder will focus on a specific topic, such as fire prevention. Mr. LaComb is also working on a City quarterly newsmagazine program. b) Mr. Grawe announced that the MACTA conference will be held November 7th and 8th at the Sheraton Metrodome. Since no members will be available to attend the conference, Mr. Grawe said he would attend the entire conference. 9. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m. 6-0 (Mr. Hugstad-Vaa motion, second by Mr. Rodell).