Champaign council to be updated on Big Broadband project update this week
CHAMPAIGN – City council members will hear an update on the $24 million Big Broadband project when they meet this week as committees have been working on the details of the high-speed Internet network for months.
The council will meet in study session on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Champaign City Building, 102 N. Neil St.
Despite the project's large price tag, the city of Champaign will be on the hook for only $688,000 of that cost. Last year, the federal government awarded a $22.5 million grant to a consortium of three local agencies to build the network in under-served neighborhoods. The University of Illinois and the city of Urbana are also contributing to the project.
The University of Illinois has hired two new employees to help plan for the network, and the city of Champaign could devote three positions to the project, according to city documents. The salary and benefits for all of those positions will be covered by the grant.
The consortium is working toward putting the construction work to bid, and at some point in the future it will need to decide on a business model to act as an Internet service provider.
In other business on Tuesday, the council will hear an update on the city's 150th anniversary celebration, which is nearing its end. They also will be asked for a preliminary decision on the renewal of three honorary street names: Robert F. Toalson Drive, Veterans Parkway, and Robert L. Lienhart Drive.
The investment by Champaign is large, but without making that investment, they almost certainly would have lost the 22M+ federal grant. Internet access is becoming more and more important, even necessary, and this seems like a very worthwhile project. The current mayor tried to refuse this grant 'on principle.' What 'principle' is that?
As for the jobs cuts -- we should be able to avoid that. One way to help with that, without raising taxes, might have been to refinance debt obligations last year, which the current mayor also opposed.
Would refinancing debt prevent the layoff of the police, school safety officers, and firefighters? Internet access is important; but is it a necessity? The Champaign County Board, and others met with legislators lobbying for projects recently. One of the projects is a trail. Granted, it would be nice to have a trail. One of the persons interviewed referred to "a piece of the pie" regarding state monies. The times now call for fiscal restraint. I suspect there are other motives besides providing internet access to the poor. People are having problems with homelessness, hunger, and crime. The $688,000.00 would go a long way on those problems plus maintain public safety. I agree with you, John Connor, on many things; but regrettably this is not one of them.
Well, I certainly agree with you most of the time too. And even if we don't quite agree on this, it's nice to disagree civilly. Basically, I don't think it has to be either/or. I'm not sure if the savings from refinancing would cover all the costs expected to be saved by the layoffs. But it would certainly help. I'm sure there are other ways to find savings and I would not even be opposed to small tax increases to save these jobs and keep these vital city services.
Here's some pretty good coverage of the project: http://www.smilepolitely.com/news/introduction_to_uc2b/
Gives the breakdown, goes over the grant process, etc.
Less-than $1M in city dollars to bring back nearly $23M in taxes to Illinois, specifically C-U? That's a pretty high rate of return on investment!
I imagine the day when we can all run our cell phones in C-U off the wireless networks and no longer have to pay a 30, 40, 50, 70 dollar a month fee to the phone companies... the hardware & software is already capable of doing that... it's just infrastructure and this is a pretty big step!
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