PORT ANGELES — A proposed fiber-optic use agreement between the city and Capacity Provisioning Inc. would not include the Museum at the Carnegie and Port Angeles Fine Arts Center as part of the citywide computer network.
While they wouldn’t be physically removed from the network, the service the city pays for them would be discontinued.
The Carnegie hasn’t used the network, which went live in January 2003.
Larry Dunbar, city power systems deputy director, said he wasn’t sure whether the Fine Arts Center has used it or not, but added that the facility was identified by staff as no longer needing to be connected.
The seven-year contract will be considered by the Port Angeles City Council on Thursday.
The “Metropolitan Area Network” connects the computers at city facilities and allows them to share and access documents at a rate of 100 megabits per second.
The 100-Mbps rate is also used for videoconferencing, utility and sewage overflow monitoring, surveillance and radio communications, according to the city.
The city currently pays $5,679 per month for the network, which includes its $500 monthly Internet bill. The Internet speed is 2 Mbps.
The city has contracted with CPI for the network since it went live in January 2003.
Monthly rate
Under the proposed contract, the monthly rate would decrease to $5,045 per month before tax. That rate would go up by $520 month after another three years.
The additional charge is for providing “redundancy,” meaning two or more connections, at several facilities.
The up-front cost to the city to install the redundant lines is $133,233. The user fee for the lines would begin in 2013.
The new contract with CPI also would connect two other city facilities: the Elwha Water Facility, currently under construction, and the Ranney Well, Dunbar said.
It would increase the connection to 1 gigabit per second, which is about 10 times faster than 100 Mbps, at seven city facilities.
The city also would not be charged to have the Port Angeles Senior Center and William Shore Memorial Pool connected to the network.
CPI has agreed, in the proposed new contract, to provide free Internet connections to those two facilities as well as the Carnegie and Fine Arts Center — which would not be connected to the city network — and to the City Council chambers, the Arthur D. Feiro Marine Life Center, Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Volunteers in Medicine Clinic and the Vern Burton Community Center.
The Carnegie doesn’t have any computers, but Dunbar said Internet access would be available to the Clallam County Historical Society, which operates the museum, if it finds a need for it.
City Deputy Engineering Director Steve Sperr said the connection speed would increase at some facilities, such as the City Hall and fire station, because of increased demand on the network.
“We are identifying new needs with use of technology,” he said, such as adding more city documents to its laserfische program.
Committee recommendation
The city’s Utility Advisory Committee, in a 4-1 vote, recommended on March 9 that the council approve the agreement.
The dissenting vote was from Council member Cherie Kidd, who sits on the committee with two other council members, Mayor Dan Di Guilio and Brooke Nelson.
Kidd said she was concerned that seven years is too long for the contract, since better technology will likely be developed by then.
“I have concern that this is a very unusually long contract,” she told the rest of the committee and city staff present.
City staff responded by saying the length of the contract allows CPI to keep the rates down.
“The prices would go up if it was three to five years,” said City Manager Kent Myers. “I guarantee it.”
Kidd also expressed concern about the city not owning the network it uses because, she said, it makes it dependent on one company staying in business.
The committee meeting wasn’t the first time that Kidd raised a concern with the contract.
At the March 2 council meeting, she questioned why the city was paying to have the Carnegie connected to the network when there no computers are in the building.
The city’s monthly bill for the Carnegie is $172 under the current contract, or about $14,792 since January 2003.
City staff have said that the council, when the first contract was being negotiated in 2002, agreed to have the Carnegie connected because the future use of the building, which was being renovated at the time, was unknown then.
Port Angeles Public Works and Utilities Director Glenn Cutler said Friday that it was also connected to the network because, at the time, a high-tech museum was being considered.
Under the new contract, the city would be able to add a connection to another facility at no charge if a connection elsewhere was discontinued, Dunbar said.
Wave Broadband also submitted a proposal for the network contract. The deadline for submitting proposals was in February.
The cost estimate for CPI’s proposal was about 42 percent of what Wave Broadband offered, according to city staff.
Both proposals came in lower than national averages, Dunbar said, adding that the city may be paying the lowest amount for a fiber network in the United States.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.