I saw this posted yesterday and had to laugh…
I’m not sure if the LEDC is trying to take credit for this, but the truth is they have had absolutely ZERO to do with Internet in this town besides wasting piles of money with no results. Kinda like the Business Pork Project.
Nextlink would have happened even if we DIDN’T have a bumbling organization known as the LEDC and DIDN’T pay an “economic development director” over $100,000 per year in salary and benefits.
Here is a timeline of what REALLY went down:
October of 2017: the LEDC decides to “get serious” about Internet after hearing complaints for years. I know that even during the Toups administration (2015 – 2017) the mayor declared he would “sue AT&T” to get action taken. This went nowhere, of course. It was a lot of big talk and no action.
In a 10/24/17 Dispatch article, we learned that “Officials are looking closely at the two companies that submitted the top-ranked proposals, City Manager Finley deGraffenried said. Once a contract is awarded, the company’s recommendations for telecommunications improvements — including identification of network design and financial models — should be issued within 30- 60 days, Mrs. [Mandy] Walsh said.”
November 15, 2017: LEDC Board member Misti Talbert moves to award contract to Foresite Group, Inc for “technology assessment, design and specs” for an amount not to exceed$42,000 [see page 4]. Motion seconded by Pratus and carries unanimously – as usual.
January 17, 2018: deGraffenreid talks about the conceptual design of the “backbone” – classification of users and options for connection. See page 3. Walsh says she has “a standing meeting every Tuesday at 2pm with Foresite”.
March 21, 2018: “We continue to make progress with Foresite” [page 36]
[Notice that the “30 to 60 days” bullshit mentioned in the newspaper by Walsh back in October of 2017 has now come and gone. This is typical. See also: skate park]
April 18, 2018: “We’ve had several successful meetings in the last few weeks and are now in the review stage of the draft business report from Foresite. We’ve identified a viable option for backhaul provider, which has been the biggest challenge. The business plan from Foresite is a rough draft at this time….and hope to finalize by end of April” [see page 12]
May 16, 2018: The LEDC board decides they need a “subcommittee for technology infrastructure”. They do this a LOT. Dozens and dozens of subcommittees – and they are all the same clowns on the LEDC board. THIS subcommittee on technology will be made up of Schaub, Pratus, TALBERT and KUEHNE. You know – because Talbert and Kuehne are tech experts and well-versed in fiber networks. [see page 2].
ZERO MOVEMENT DURING THIS TIME GAP.
August 15, 2018: Yes – we have a three month gap. This also happens a lot. The LEDC gets all excited about something, spends tens of thousands of dollars on a study, appoints themselves to various subcommittees and then twiddle thumbs for a year or two.
Anyways on page 20: “We continue to work with Foresite Group – with bi-weekly phone calls. We also met with the subcommittee and worked through the survey. We hope this will give us the data we need in order to understand which financial model is most feasible“
September 19, 2018: “the fiber subcommittee met with members of the Foresite team on September 5th and review survey questions we felt were relevant.” [see page 19]
[Again, I’m sure Talbert and Kuehne’s VAST experience in fiber networks AND running a private sector business helped them immensely here. Also notice we are now almost a YEAR out from the initial October 2017 start date and they are still dicking around with surveys. That “30 to 60 days” is long forgotten. This is also very typical]
October 17, 2018: More dicking around with survey [see page 5-6]. Technology subcommittee upset that “changes requested by the subcommittee have not been implemented”. More circle jerking ensues.
November 14, 2018: Mandy has “presented survey to eight local groups…so far we’ve had a great response” [see page 18]. I have no idea what this accomplishes.
January 16, 2019: More blather about the surveys. Are you seeing a pattern yet? See page 43.
Feb 20, 2019: “Foresite and staff are requesting a joint session between City council and the LEDC on March 20th for their final presentation.” See page 33.
March 20, 2019: The big presentation arrives. I won’t go too far into the weeds, you can read it all yourself [pages 1,2,3]. But the bottom line is that for their $42,000 ‘study’, Foresite recommends the following:
- Build a dark fiber
- Apply for a grant
- Public or private partnership
[In other words, try to find somebody to pay for all of this. Brilliant!!]
April 17, 2019: Langford (remember them??) starts work on the USDA ReConnect grant/loan application. “The most strategic option in staff/fiber subcommittee/grant writer’s opinion is the 50/50 grant/loan option” [see page 27]
The LEDC agreed to waste $10,000 on the grant application!!! [see page 2 Item V]
May 15, 2019: “We are continuing our work on the USDA grant/loan ReConnect Pilot Program.” [see page 19]
June 19, 2019: “I have a list of survey respondents from Foresite and I’ll be going through the resident information and contacting them to provide speed tests in order to justify our need for this grant” [see page 30] – grant is due June 21st [see page 7]
[Ruh roh. First chink in the armor, Mandy. Justify the need for the grant? This should have been figured out a LONG time ago by Foresite, in my humble Lampasshole opinion. Oopsie. I guess $42,000 doesn’t buy what it used to]
July 17, 2019: “We have discussed meetings between Foresite and a technology investor group out of Bryan TX….and they have expressed interest in assisting us with a funding solution. We have not set the initial meeting yet” [see page 19]
[BULLSHIT PIPE DREAM ALERT!!! Unnamed “investor group” has millions laying around to give away. Yeah RIGHT! This is where it is obvious to me it’s all going to blow up soon. Mandy just doesn’t see it yet – just like Mike Cour and Eco-Strong!]
Here comes the punchline – almost TWO YEARS and $42,000 later. Not to mention hundreds of manhours wasted by the LEDC and City council:
August 21, 2019: see page 15
“We also did not learn until well into the application that our dark fiber model was not an eligible model for this funding”.
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Get the joke? That Foresite recommendation (which cost $42,000) was BULLSHIT! The august “Technology Subcommittee” comprised of Talbert and Kuehne didn’t catch it either. Nor did the grant writer. That’s called a Triple Fuckup in my book.
The $42,000? GONE. The “technology investor group” out of Bryan? GONE (likely never existed in the first place). The hopes of ‘free’ high-speed Internet? GONE. Those 22 months of fucking around with surveys and meetings and subcommittee meetings? GONE.
Too funny.
Of course, just like the Business Pork project disaster, the LEDC had their asses pulled from the fire thanks to COVID money raining down on them from a bunch of liberal retards running the country: Nextlink is subsidized by $281 million from the FCC and its Connect America Fund Phase 2 (CAF II) deployments. Fiber? Not using it. Totally different technology. Fund from tech investors? Not used.
So all is well that ends well, I guess. Nobody remembers the LEDC torching $42,000 on a pipe dream AND they can take credit for Nextlink showing up in town. And it’s all FREE, right Bruce? All those billions thrown at cities and counties for “COVID” is all FREE!!
That is if you don’t count the 12% inflation we are seeing as a direct result of all the money printing. But we can just blame all that on “greedy corporations”, right?