Council to consider final approval for $4.8M bond
Dec 08, 2009 | 609 views | 1 
| 2 
| 
| 
| 2 | |
There will be public comment prior to discussion and a vote by the council.
In November, Brigham City Council voted to proceed with this course of action in order to finance the full build-out of fiber optic infrastructure throughout Brigham City, not just in those areas where a large enough percentage of individuals had signed up for the voluntary assessment. That assessment will pay for installation of fiber optics to their homes or businesses.
There have been 1,604 individuals who signed a voluntary agreement to cover the $3,000 cost of installation of fiber to the home. A number of business have also signed up for UTOPIA. However, only three of the six designated districts had a high enough number of individuals to pay for the installation. Those three districts account for 1,000 of those who signed up. Without the council’s action, the remaining 600 would not have access to UTOPIA.
The council’s decision to issue the bond includes $665,000 which Brigham City Corporation will pay. That amount includes $294,000 for installation of fiber optics to city facilities. The remainder, $371,000, is the amount the city will ‘front’ to install fiber optics throughout the city. As new subscribers come on board in the future, a portion of that will repay the $371,000. The bulk of the bond will be paid by those who signed up for the voluntary assessment area in order to subscribe to one of UTOPIA’s service providers.
In last month’s meeting Financial Officer Jason Roberts told those attending, “The Brigham City Council has identified areas where the funding for the $655,384 cost for the connecting of fiber to city sites and finishing the build out to the entire city can be obtained. Items currently in the 2009-10 fiscal budget were identified that could be re-prioritized and the possible use of fund balance was discussed. The Council felt confident that the funding would be available from the options presented.”
The final agenda item tomorrow night is how to pay the $665,000.
Postings are not edited and are the responsibility of the author. You agree not to post comments that are abusive, threatening or obscene. Postings may be removed at the discretion of benewsjournal.com
What I am more upset about is that now we are so close to finally getting UTOPIA in Brigham City, and at the last minute this lobbying group known as the Utah Taxpayers Association is swooping in and attempting to instill fear and anger into the citizens of Brigham City.
The UTA has done a great job so far. They have almost everyone convinced that the city of Brigham and UTOPIA are the bad guys that are intent on stealing your tax payer dollars.
But let’s place blame on the real villains, they are the deep pocket corporations that are currently taking your money and want to continue taking your money while providing you with marginal service.
These corporations hate innovation because it costs money, and they hate competition because then they lose money. And so they spend millions of dollars on lobbyist groups like the UTA to prevent projects like UTOPIA from becoming successful.
How do you think that the UTA paid for those pretty anti-UTOPIA flyers that came in your mailbox? Why do you think the UTA waited until the very last minute to send out those mailers, when they have known since December of 2008 about UTOPIA and their goals?
Before you start pointing fingers and placing blame, consider who the real villains are in this story.
You can also get additional information at www.freeutopia.org, and to show that I am not biased www.utahtaxpayers.org . However they are biased, because they deleted my negative comments about them.