Public Education/ Discussion Meeting — Minutes

Town of Sturgeon Bay Broadband Internet Committee Meeting Door County Library October 19, 2023 Minutes 1. Call to Order : The meeting was called to order by David Wood at 1:00 PM. 2. Establish quorum : Board members present: Jeff Feuerstein, Pam Kraase Johnson, Randy Graf, Cathy Eckers. Virtual: David Wood. Community members: 1 3. Adopt Agenda: Motioned by Feuerstein to approve agenda. Seconded by Kraase Johnson. Motion carried. 4. Review and approval of minutes from September 29, 2023, meeting . Motioned by Feuerstein to approve minutes. Seconded by Graf. Motion carried. 5. Correspondence : - AT&T response to questions submitted by town residents to be discussed under 8.a. - AT&T would like to Zoom in for the next committee meeting. - Jessica Hatch sent out an invitation to attend an informational meeting on BEAD funding which is on November 7th. All town board and internet committee members are encouraged to attend. - Jessica Hatch received confirmation that AT&T will need to be the applicant for the BEAD grant. 6. Public comment: None 7. Old business a. Outreach to neighborhood associations: Feuerstein answered questions at the Lake Forest Park Association meeting. David Ray of the South Lake Michigan Drive Association compiled a list of questions and Wood responded to those questions. There may be a Zoom meeting to answer those questions as well as others that Wood will try to do next week. Feuerstein stated that since we have had numerous questions perhaps we should try to post Frequently Asked Questions and a Q & A document on the town website. He will inquire if that is a possibility. b. Increasing participation in broadband access survey. No action. 8. New business: a. Discuss additional clarification and response from AT&T : AT&T has to run all question responses through their lawyers before we receive their responses, which causes a delay. They state there is no more room to reduce the cost as proposed in their updated RFP. Responses to the questions received by AT&T were discussed, as well as being able to post the responses on the town website. The committee would still like to get a confirmed response from AT&T on the cost to those who do not sign up at the initial install. b. Discuss contacts for contract with AT&T : Town attorney, Randy Nesbitt, is in the process of going over the resolution that will hopefully be put to the town board at their next meeting. We obtained and briefly discussed a copy of another AT&T fiber contract for comparison. AT&T will own the infrastructure. c. Closed session - N/A d. Reconvene in open session - N/A e. Discussed communication outreach including Q&A document and/or blog hopefully to be inserted on the town website. Wood will update his draft of the Q & A for posting on the website. Feuerstein will work with Nancy Anschutz to see if this can be accomplished. f. Discussed resolutions and process for Town Board and Elector approval of Committee recommendation. Feuerstein stated Randy Nesbitt is drafting for the town board to review. The town board needs to approve the resolution and then the town electors’ meeting can be scheduled in accordance with the law. Since the budget meetings are occurring in November, there could be some difficulty with the scheduling. Feuerstein will contact the bank to see about the possibility of the initial short-term loan prior to the BCPL (Board of Commissioners of Public Lands) loan. Wood is concerned that the resolution does not include the levy limit, current and proposed increase, to the taxpayers and the Department of Revenue website indicates this must be included. Feuerstein will be discussing it with attorney. Discussion held on the timeline of the upcoming meetings and the timelines for borrowing and loan payments. g. Update on broadband grant funding opportunities. It is too late to apply for the Capital Project Fund grant (as the deadline is November 7th), but all efforts will be concentrated on applying for BEAD funding which should be available mid-2024. h. Discuss broadband maps, review strategy, and challenge process 9. Matters to be placed on a future meeting agenda a. Financing options: Available town funds, local short-term bank loan, BCPL loan. b. Ways to increase participation in broadband access survey: 13 more respondents bringing total to 172. c. Ways to improve accuracy of service maps d. Review of fire numbers in Town of Sturgeon Bay: Graf and Haase-Johnson will review the north side of the town. Eckers is doing the south side. Eckers will take the north and south side reviews and bump again the list provided by Sturgeon Bay Utilities. 10. Next meeting date : Thursday, November 2, 2023, 3:30pm-5:30pm in Meeting Room 1 of the Door County Library. 11. Motion to adjourn by Feuerstein. Seconded by Graf. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 2:45 pm. Respectfully submitted by Cathy Eckers, Recording Secretary