Tonight's Town Board Agenda meeting was pretty useful, but one piece made me especially happy - if happy in kind of a frustrating way. I met another Dryden blogger, Claire Perez, of It's About the Story.
She was there because of the seemingly infinite frustration of trying to get broadband connections from Time-Warner Cable. Town Board member Jason Leifer pointed out tonight that even though Time-Warner has talked about bringing service anywhere with 20 customers along a linear mile, the latest franchise contract they presented doesn't say anything like that. Instead, it points to Public Service Commission language that ends up at more like 35 per mile.
Her broadband posts explain all too well the strange world of our information infrastructure. I especially liked the game of Mother, May I? she plays with the question of broadband.
Perez asked if the Town Board could hold a public hearing on broadband issues. While Leifer joked that Time-Warner had included a public hearing notice on their proposed franchise contract, the Board had little interest in the basically nothing the company was offering. Supervisor Mary Ann Sumner noted that the Tompkins County Council of Governments was discussing having a group of municipalities negotiate as a consortium, and she and Leifer thought a public meeting on the subject might be a good idea in September.
The board also discussed public hearings needed for a special use permit and fee waiver for the wireless broadband Clarity Connect projects they approved in March. That seems to be moving toward construction, if slowly.
Posted by simon at July 13, 2011 10:57 PM in communications
Thank you Simon for reading my blog and for your positive comments about the message. This is a very frustrating situation but I feel validated.
I look forward to reading more of your posts about Dryden.
Sincerely, Claire Perez
The Clarity Connect project, which should have been completed by now, is at a standstill. I am starting to lose hope that it will be up and running by the end of the summer.
I am amazed there aren't more people like Claire beating at the TW gates, and I am even more amazed that the TCCOG is taking so long to open this issue up for RFPs. Why TW has such a monopoly when they show no interest at all in the communities they serve is beyond me, and why we sit back and tolerate their lousy service is a mystery, too. I think Ma Bell did a heckuva lot better by her customers, and she was a monopoly, too.
A public meeting might be a good idea. My brother had better broadband service five years ago in Mongolia than some of us have today in Dryden.