10-15-2019 EDC Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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EDC Minutes October 15, 2019 Page 3 of 7 ----------------------------- and beneficial. Commissioner Crochet said that pushed TDS to do some upgrades that allowed them to push higher bandwidth a lot further. He said before that they were not doing a 100 MB and now they doing a 100 MB to the customers that can get it. Discussion ensued about grants, the high cost of running fiber and offsetting those costs with construction. Chair Lindholm asked what the EDC needs to do to help Pequot Lakes to get better connectivity. Commissioner Crochet said to keep being an advocate for the City, keep pressuring him and sending emails then he can put the pressure corporate so they are aware of the issue. Chair Lindholm said he believes the Growth Zone called out in our 2018 Comp Plan should be of highest priority. He explained that is Downtown and Government Drive. Commissioner Lelwica asked how Charter fits into all this. Commissioner Crochet said that Charter's a competitor and they have co-ax that they feed to the majority of the area. Commissioner Lelwica asked how they can provide higher speeds than TDS. Commissioner Crochet explained it is because the co-ax is a thicker copper so they can push it a little bit further. Discussion ensued about businesses coming together to push TDS to make the investment to provide better speeds. Commissioner Lelwica questioned if we have resources at the city that explores grants. Ms. Malecha said we do not have a grant writer but she would be the one to explore grants. Chair Lindholm mentioned BLAEDC for a grant resource also. Ms. Malecha asked Commissioner Crochet if a letter from the EDC would help this cause or a letter from the City Council. Commission Crochet said it would help. Ms. Malecha suggested the EDC type a letter to send to TDS and then she said she could take it to the City Council to ask the same of them as well. Commission Crochet stated that the more pressure we get, the more TDS will be forced to do something. COMMISSIONER LELWICA MOVED THAT THE EDC DRAFTS A LETTER TO SEND TO TDS THAT SELLS PEQUOT LAKES FOR GROWTH AND SALES POTENTIAL WITH THE FOCUS ON THE GROWTH ZONE ESPECIALLY WHEN THE GROUND IS OPENED UP AND ALSO RECOMMEND TO THE CITY COUNCIL THAT THEY DRAFT A SIMILAR LETTER. COMMISSIONER CLEMENT SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION CARRIED 5-0. Commissioner Crochet stated that any pressures for TDS are huge and brought up the donation for the flag display. Commissioner Lelwica suggested putting together some incentives and make sure that all those incentives also include some fiber incentive Chair Lindholm said he would like to have that as a separate conversation, because he believes that is a little more complex.