Despite a potentially significant increase to the cost of deploying municipally owned broadband Internet infrastructure in Sundre, the possibility of creating a lasting legacy that will generate revenue for generations to come cannot be understated.
Sundre's outgoing council recently learned following a presentation from administrative staff that the initial estimate of about $2.75 million could increase to anywhere between $3.1 and $3.3 million, largely because more utility poles than originally expected will need to be replaced to accommodate the aerially mounted fibre optic lines.
Additionally, funding allocated in a specific reserve for the feasibility study on the project has been all but used up, and roughly another $70,000 will need to be spent from unallocated infrastructure reserves to get more detailed information on the condition of the poles to determine a precise tally of the number that will have to be replaced.
However, the originally estimated cost of $2.75 million already includes a 20 per cent cost overrun contingency, said Jon Allan, Sundre's economic development officer.
"Therefore, if the cost of deployment remains on budget, the cost would still be within the $2.75 million budget, including the pole replacement," he said.
The business model prepared by administration also used conservative estimates of only about 30 per cent buy-in rates for both the business and residential sectors, "but the results of the public survey show up to double that number of households are inclined to use that service."
So the potential to establish the revenue-generating infrastructure that in turn could be used to subsidize the cost of streets and sidewalks certainly has by no stretch of the imagination been extinguished.
In fact, municipally owned broadband infrastructure remains not only viable, but also an ingenuitive way to reduce dependency on residential taxation.
But council was not prepared to commit to such a serious investment with the election around the corner. Fortunately, council was wise not to outright pull the plug on the project, and instead unanimously agreed to leave it under consideration for the new council.
Perhaps Coun. Myron Thompson put it best when he said during council's Sept. 25 meeting, "I like the idea of owning some sort of a system. I like owning the gas system, it's been very good to us. I like owning the water system, it's been very good to us. And it might be very good to us to own this (broadband). But I think we need a little more time and a little more information."
Hard to argue against such a reasonable position.
Even so, planning for the municipality's future means more than considering the immediate horizon. The new council will hopefully keep in mind that laying the groundwork to ensure sustainability 20 years down the road starts today.
ó Ducatel is the Round Up's editor
