MINUTES

The Council of the city of Oakwood, Ohio, met in a work session on Monday, September 18, 2017 in the conference room of the Oakwood Municipal Building, 30 Park Avenue. The Mayor of the city, William Duncan, presided.

Council members in attendance were Mayor William Duncan, Vice Mayor Steve Byington, Councilmember Rob Stephens, Councilmember Anne Hilton and Councilmember Chris Epley. Staff in attendance were City Manager Norbert Klopsch and City Attorney Rob Jacques.

Mayor Duncan called the work session to order at 6:00 p.m. The meeting began with a discussion about the MVCC Broadband Fiber Network project. Finance Director Cindy Stafford joined the work session for this agenda item, as did Kettering City Manager Mark Schwieterman and Kettering IT Director Drew Miller. Mr. Klopsch made a brief statement about work efforts over the past 15+ years to find ways in which an enhanced fiber optic network could benefit the MVCC communities. Mr. Klopsch introduced Mr. Schwieterman and Mr. Miller. Mr. Schwieterman explained that he and Mr. Miller are making the rounds to each MVCC member community council to explain the fiber optic project. He then delivered a PowerPoint presentation. The project began in 2014 when the cities of Centerville, Kettering and Oakwood joined together and obtained a $100,000 grant through the Ohio Local Government Innovation Fund. That grant provided the resources needed to study the existing fiber optic infrastructure and develop a plan to add additional fiber and build a network that could be of significant value to all MVCC communities. If built, users of the fiber infrastructure would be all of the member jurisdictions, local school districts, and other non-profit and tax exempt organizations. The system could also provide opportunities for business development throughout the MVCC communities. The fiber system would be connected to the Ohio Academic Research Network and would allow for sharing of technology services, capabilities and skill sets, lower IT and telecomm expenses and increase internet bandwidth for all users. The current list of partners would be all MVCC communities, except Germantown. The location of Germantown in relation to the other communities is such that extending the fiber to their facilities would be cost prohibitive. Washington Township is another potential partner, and the initial customer users would be the Centerville Schools and Kettering Schools. The total cost to build the fiber optic extension is about $935,000 of which $265,000 would be provided by partner cities. The remaining $670,000 would be paid by the seven MVCC communities. The finished fiber optic infrastructure loop would be a combination of city-owned fiber and fiber owned by private networks that would be accessed through shared use agreements. The new fiber construction would include 18.6 miles with some overhead and some underground, and the project would take approximately six months to complete. At the conclusion of the presentation, Mr. Schwieterman and Mr. Miller addressed several questions from City Council. Oakwood's share of the $670,000 capital investment would be approximately $34,000. The amount would be approximately $10,000 more if Washington Township elects not to participate as a partner. At 6:48 p.m., Mayor Duncan thanked Mr. Schwieterman and Mr. Miller for the presentation and the gentleman departed the meeting, as did Mrs. Stafford.