03/26/2007 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Regular Council Meeting 3-26-07 Page 7 SFECIAL COMMITTEE REPORTS: 2020 Vision Committee - Dr. Parker reported that there will be a meeting this Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m. In:formation & Technolo?y - Mr. Marrie reported that there was a meeting on March 8t". Bill Buckholtz, Bill Marquardt, Mr. Marrie and John Hagerty from Euphonyx on Beta attended. John Hai.gerty is very involved and was there to talk about Beta and the success of WiMax. Discussion with the WiFi for residents ensued. It is still not totally settled, but there has been a lot of di;,cussion that WiFi might not be available in homes. There was a misunderstanding when the map came out. It showed a 1.2 mile radius of the WiFi. It was misleading. We discussed a plan that has to be put into place to advise residents of where we stand on this once it is settled. The WiMax is really for Beta. The WiFi is what everyone felt was going to be for the homes. John fee;ls the WiMax is a big portion of economic development success in Beta. He felt that he did not explain OneCleveland very well when we first started discussions regarding WiFi. We all feel that it has to be addressed to the residents of the Village. Some people have not been asked about it. Bill Marquardt and Tom Marrie have had questions. Jeff Thomas was asked about this. He gets about 8 calls a month asking when the resident will be getting WiFi to their house. We are talking about getting that settled so that we know exactly where we stand, especially for the re:;idents. As far as John is concerned, the broadband is extremely important for an incentive to get people to come to Beta. He discussed a couple of companies that have grown quite a bit, for example expansion from 2 to 4 to 20 to 30 and from 4 to 40. He feels it is in the neighborhood _ of 200 which sounds very high. He welcomed everyone to come to Beta if they wished. He would be glad to show them Beta. Bill Marquardt asked John some very pointed questions. One of them was how unique is Beta with this WiMax. John said that many municipalities have tried it. None have been successful. We are very unique in this area for the situation that we have. The OneCleveland connection is the main source for it. You just can't find this kind of opportunity in very many places. It might have taken a while, but OneCleveland is probably just coming in to its own now. We are seeing a little bit of that up there. Back to the WiFi for the residents, Mr. Marrie suggested that a meeting be held and a decision made one way or the other as to how to send an explanation to the residents who are under illusions of grandeur. It was not very clear from the very beginning. Dr. Parker advised that he looked over the Minutes. One of the issues that came up is that you can send a signal out, but there was a problem with the signal coming back. Mr. Marrie stated that we can send a signal out to everyone in the Village in the 1.2 radius which would cover about everyone, except for a couple of corners in the Village. It would be useless, because they could not send anything back. Dr. Parker asked if there is a way for us to have little sites in the neighborhood. Mr. Buckholtz stated that we do already. Mr. Marrie stated that we can add to it. There are areas that we can add. We have the pool and the gazebo and other "green areas" that we can add without changing or doing anything other than what we can already do. Dr. Paxker asked if this can be done in the neighborhoods too. Mr. Marrie advised that it could not. Every house would still have to put in a$300.00 booster/receiver.