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Regular Council Meeting <br />12/19/05 <br />Page 15 <br />Mr. Buckholtz indicated that he knows from being in hotspots right now that as many people <br />who have come in with laptops can access the internet and work at reasonable speeds. We are <br />not promoting everyone to get rid of their internet provider. <br />Mr. Marquardt stated that we are talking a mile radius. It is being promoted as free access to <br />the internet for the residents. In a mile radius, you are talking about at least half of the people <br />in the Village. <br />Mr. Buckholtz indicated that as reported at Caucus, we were not going to promote it as <br />something that people should cancel their subscriptions to their internet service provider and <br />log on to this. It is more of an entertainment and access of amenities, such as if you want to sit <br />out in the car with your laptop for casual usage. <br />Mr. Saponaro asked if this is not an ISP, it is just getting you to the link? You have to have <br />your own internet access provider? Mr. Buckholtz indicated that this was not necessarily so. <br />When you walk in to a hotspot, you just click on either Internet Explorer or Netscape or <br />Bozilla Firefox or whatever browser you want and you are on the internet. You do not have to <br />log in to the ISP, you are just on the internet for browsing. What was specifically stated at <br />Caucus is that we are not going to put out the VOV or go to our residents and say, you now <br />have wireless and now you do not need your linksys router, you do not need your ISP. The <br />Finance Director indicated that it should not be characterized that way, it should not be <br />promoted as this is a replacement that everyone now has free internet courtesy of the Village. <br />That is not what we are doing. We are creating outdoor hotspots in public spaces. In all of the <br />articles read, it has been done successfully in other cities. Mr. Marquardt indicated that the <br />ordinance does not read that way. <br />Mayor .Rinker indicated that what it is saying is that whoever walks within that mile and has <br />the ability, will receive it free but bugs may come with it. As time goes on, we presume that <br />those systems are going to become better. The risk is the questions being asked. Mayor <br />Rinker is not sure that there is any risk, other than we are saying that we are going to spend "x" <br />amount of dollars to facilitate the installation of something that we know for business use is <br />going to be different than it is for residential use..It is two different components, but we <br />should not get so concerned about what it is or is not going to provide to residents as much as <br />we see this as an economic development that we have a business already investing in our <br />community and we know from feedback we have gotten in larger communities abroad that <br />businesses, commercial real estate brokers, a number of people going on a tour in the Village <br />about a month ago, every one of them was keenly interested in the prospect that we would be <br />able to rent out facilities that had this extra amenity. We are not taking on the headache of <br />providing something that we see as making the business community a better place <br />Mr. Marquardt indicated that he understood this, but that we are touting to the residents that <br />this is going to be showered upon them and he is not so sure. Mayor Rinker stated that we are <br />not touting to the residents. We are not trying to go out and hype this thing only to disappoint <br />everyone. There is no question that if you talk about it, it is public and we put it out there, <br />