Cheney City Council approves fiber optic contract

CHENEY – The City Council voted unanimously to enter into a contract to lease some of their dark fiber optic lines, hold a hearing on the vacation of property along 1st Street and approved the first reading of the 2020 budget as action items at their Nov. 26 meeting.

The council reviewed the fiber optic contract with Ptera at their Nov. 12 meeting, but held off on voting on the document until staff could clarify some conditions and agree to changes with the Liberty Lake-based company on others. Light Department Director Steve Marx told the council those changes and clarifications were made, and that both Ptera and city attorney Stanley Schwartz had approved the documents.

The contract is an exchange of services, allowing Ptera access to four strands of fiber that run from a server in City Hall to a vault at the intersection of South Spotted Road and West Westbow Boulevard and eventually to downtown Spokane. Access to two additional strands from City Hall to the vault will be reserved for future development allowing Cheney and Ptera to expand service into Airway Heights.

These 12 strands and the vault are leased from Zayo, a communications infrastructure company headquartered in Boulder, Colo. and London, England. Ptera would lease the four Zayo strands for $3,000 a month plus 4 percent per year of the five-year contract.

Ptera gains access to 24 of the 96 total strands of dedicated Cheney fiber for servicing businesses and residents. The city is currently using only 24 strands.

In exchange, Ptera will provided several connections for the city, beginning with fixed wireless backup connection at 500/500 megabytes per second (Mbps) to City Hall, valued at $1,250 a month. The connection via the Zayo vault from Spokane will be primary fiber to City Hall, valued at $1,800 a month.

Several hotspots will be set up, along with an existing fiber system build-out and private network connections to the city’s eight water wells, valued at $4,000 and $970 a month respectively. Additional city internet connects to parks for irrigation control is also included.

Council also agreed to set a hearing date of Jan. 14, 2020 on a request from Northwest Renovators to vacate the street right-of-way along 1st Street that abuts their property on Andrus Road in order to develop a new commercial space there. The triangular-shaped right-of-way was vacated to the city by the state Department of Transportation in 1940 when 1st Street was also known as Primary State Highway 11.

According to the application, Northwest Renovators claim the land at Mary Street has no marketable value “as an independent parcel” due to its irregular size and location. Vacation would enable them to link to parcels, one 2.91 acres along Andrus Road and the other 0.21 acres along 1st Street.

Public Works Director Todd Ableman said Northwest Renovators is the same company that came to the city several years ago with a similar request at the location, but never followed through.

Council also approved an additional disbursement from the lodging tax fund of $1,900 to the Cheney Merchants Association for last Friday’s Holiday Hoopla celebration. Finance Director Cindy Niemeier said the additional request was so the CMA could purchase lights.

Council approved a $10,115 lodging tax disbursement for the celebration at its Nov. 12 meeting.

Finally, the council approved the first of three readings of the city’s $32.6 million 2020 budget. The approval did not include additional budget items agreed to at a Dec. 2 special meeting.

In explaining the budget items, Niemeier said the recent passage of car-tab reduction Initiative 976 is a flag to cities to be careful with how they budget, saying projects currently funded by state money might not be that way after the Legislature convenes in January and addresses the initiatives impacts on transportation.

“I think things like streets might need to be re-evaluated in how we are funding them,” she added.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.