12/15/2008 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Regular Council Meeting Minutes 12-15-08 Page 18 Mayor Rinker has heard nothing negative. He has heard everything positive from public and private sector people who have more knowledge about the value of bandwith. Every time he turns around we are hearing how improved bandwith improves productivity of really a new generation of businesses. The fact that we've got the Lieutenant Governor of the State of Ohio who is in charge of economic development making a point to visit Beta next month to note the advances of QED, one of our test babies, if you will, is also very significant. When Columbus is paying attention, we ought to make some valued judgment there. Council President Buckholtz stated that it doesn't speak directly to the numbers, but it speaks. Council President Buckholtz introduced Eric Jones. Eric Jones stated he is from Panzica. They have properties in the corner. They have customers that use the fiber. As a construction company, which is another part of Panzica, they use that link. On their realty side, they have brought in customers like QED and Pre- Emptive and newer customers like Bioenvision, more tech biosafety customers. When he sat down with the guys to talk about it for the first time, they said that definitely if it was not for the bandwith in our building, they would have gone someplace else. Right now a lot of other customers have come because of that. It has made a big difference to them. They are not like a big tech company or bio company, they are just another business. What this has done is for Julia, who is the property manager and the broker and salesperson for that property, she can now charge more money for it. The properties are almost filled. There are only a couple spots left. One customer wants a bigger space. That's all because of this link. That property has been owned by Tony for a number of years and has not made money for him. If everything goes well, we will make some money on it. Businesses will stay in this area. This has shown that he can make more money with it. This strategy plan will work for him. He will be bringing clients in. Bioenvision is a word of mouth customer. It is word of mouth from QED. A lot of people have talked about QED as the big child. They are staying in Mayfield because they still can get the high speed internet. If it wasn't for that, they probably would not have stayed on Beta. They would have gone across the street to Alpha. With moving fiber to their building, they grow even more. Other customers are staying here, Hardbody Fitness and Direct Elite Services. Hardbody Fitness is in 700 Beta. They are a fitness club. They do all of their managing up there, their fitness programs, their diets, everything else is done on-line. They need the high speed internet. They are constantly accessing the internet. They can access all of their records. If the internet goes d.own, they are done. They can't stay. Direct Elite Services is just starting off. It is a tech company which works with different car dealerships. They use fiber. He has had word from different companies seeking out information on the fiber ring, for example, Superior Beverage on Beta. They would want to be connected if they expand. He also heard from a different source that Mayfran right now has two T-1's. Most businesses have one. They are looking to expand their data services to move some of the services offsite. A lot of companies are moving their services off-site.