Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Manager’s Office

 

TO:

Diane Stoddard, Interim City Manager

FROM:

Brandon McGuire, Assistant to the City Manager

CC:

Randy Larkin, James Wisdom, Mark Thiel, Todd Lohman, Micah Seybold, Dave Wagner

DATE:

July 15, 2015

RE:

RG Fiber request for dark fiber lease and reassignment of fiber agreement

 

Background

Resolution 7097 (“Fiber Policy”) establishes the City’s policy regarding the administration of the City’s fiber optic infrastructure, fiber partnerships with community anchor institutions (CAIs) (I.e. education, government, hospitals), and the lease of dark fibers to private entities. According to the Fiber Policy, the City Commission shall consider for approval, requests from private entities for the lease of City-owned dark fibers. RG Fiber has requested a lease of 12 dark fibers in the City’s dark fiber runs. RG Fiber’s request satisfies the objectives stated in the Fiber Policy regarding the lease of excess City-owned dark fibers. Staff proposes the attached Fiber Memorandum of Understanding and Dark Fiber Lease Agreement to satisfy this request. The structure of this agreement is consistent with staff’s implementation of the Fiber Policy pertaining to leasing City-owned dark fibers. The MOU establishes the overarching framework and legal terms and conditions for right-of-way use and the management of City-owned fiber optic cables. The Dark Fiber Lease Agreement establishes the terms and conditions for the specific lease of City-owned dark fibers.

Dark Fiber Lease Request

RG Fiber is a subsidiary of Reflective Group, a Baldwin City tech company. Reflective Group was challenged by the lack of high speed internet capacity needed to support the company’s work.  As a solution, RG Fiber was created to build a gigabit network in Baldwin City and provide internet service. RG Fiber is also building out its gigabit network in the city of Eudora and the city of Lawrence. RG Fiber desires to expand its Lawrence network to residents and businesses by developing a community-wide network capable of providing 10 Gbps (gigabits per second) bandwidth. The company has received pre-registrations from across the city and pre-registrations can be made at www.RG Fiberiber.com/signup. The service activation timeline is anticipated to begin in the first quarter of 2016 and construction will be prioritized based on pre-registration density.

Reassignment of Existing License Agreement

On December 17, 2013, the City Commission authorized the City Manager to execute a License Agreement with Dawn Fiber (12/17/13 agenda report). Since that time, Dawn Fiber was dissolved and replaced by RG Fiber. Also since that time, the City adopted the Fiber Policy which applies to these types of fiber agreements. RG Fiber needs the existing License Agreement to be reassigned from RG Fiber to Dawn Fiber and the City needs to bring the existing agreement under the new fiber agreement structure being used to implement the Fiber Policy. MOU Addendum Number 1 to the proposed memorandum of understanding with RG Fiber accomplishes both of these tasks. Aside from addressing those needs, the only change to the existing agreement compared to MOU Addendum Number 1 is to the specific route of the conduit that the City receives as compensation for the License Agreement. An explanation of MOU Addendum Number 1 and the difference the former conduit route and the new conduit route follows.

 

Explanation of Addendum Number 1

Addendum Number 1 (as with the former License Agreement it replaces) provides RG Fiber with right-of-way access to install conduit along the route defined in the agreement. As compensation to the City, RG Fiber is installing a separate conduit along that route for the City. Originally RG Fiber planned to connect to Kansas Fiber Network’s statewide backbone at the intersection of 5th and Tennessee in order to light its network in the Baldwin City Area. Since the original agreement was executed, RG Fiber developed an alternative bandwidth source and the connection to the KFN backbone is no longer needed. The revision to the conduit route comes as a result of RG Fiber no longer needing that connection to KFN.

 

For compensation to the City, RG Fiber is installing conduit along a critical route for the City. The conduit route specified in the existing agreement begins at the intersection of 5th and Tennessee, proceeds south on Tennessee to 11th Street, proceeds east on 11th to Haskell, proceeds south on Haskell to 19th Street, proceeds east on 19th to Harper, proceeds south on Harper and terminates at the intersection of Harper and 23rd Street (map of the existing agreement’s route). The route of the new conduit is revised in the proposed Addendum Number 1 to begin at the intersection of 11th and Rhode Island and proceed from that point onward along the same route as just described (map of the revised route). The route is critical to the City because it enables the City to connect 16 facilities to the City’s fiber backbone that are not currently connected. This is a significant step forward in the development of the City’s fiber optic network and will support operations at these facilities. The new conduit route also enables the City to make advancements in its intelligent traffic system by connecting traffic signals along this route.

 

The original route would enable the City to connect the Carnegie Building to the City’s fiber backbone. The revised route begins at 11th and Rhode Island, so the Carnegie Building will not be connected as a direct result of this agreement. The City owns fiber in in close proximity to the Carnegie Building and can connect that building through future projects as needed. That building could also possibly be connected in the future as the result of conduit installations by the private sector. RG Fiber has stated its desire to work with the City on future conduit installations in the downtown area. The facilities and locations that will be connected as a result of the conduit route are listed below.    

 

·         Law Enforcement Center

·         Central Maintenance Garage

·         Street Division

·         Street’s Red Barn Building

·         Sanitation Division

·         Fuel Stations at 11th and Haskell

·         Park and Recreation Maintenance Forestry Building

·         East Lawrence Recreation Center

·         Oak Hill Cemetery

·         Memorial Park Cemetery

·         Fire Training Center

·         Park and Recreation Maintenance Shop

·         Douglas County Fairgrounds

·         Fire Station #2

·         Harper Water Tower

·         Venture Park

·         Fire Medical Station in Baldwin City (as a result of the 4 fibers installed by RG Fiber in the Utilities conduit)

 

The License Agreement also permits RG Fiber to install its own fiber optics in the Water Utilities conduit running from the intersection of 23rd Street and O’Connell Road, under the Wakarusa River, and to the Wakarusa Wastewater Treatment Plant. Those fibers are completely separate from the Water Utilities fiber in that conduit and will be used by RG Fiber to provide internet service to the Baldwin City area. As compensation for this provision, RG Fiber is providing 4 of its fibers in this installation to the City so that the Fire Medical station in Baldwin City can be connected to the City’s backbone network. All of these provisions in Addendum Number 1 are consistent with the existing License Agreement.

       

Staff Recommendation

City staff recommends approval of the proposed RG Fiber Dark Fiber Lease Agreement and Fiber Memorandum of Understanding. Pursuant to the Fiber Policy, RG Fiber would pay $16,762.50 annually for the lease of 12 dark fibers in each run if the City Commission approves the lease agreement. Additionally, staff recommends approval of MOU Addendum Number 1 which reassigns the existing Dawn Fiber License Agreement to RG Fiber.                                                                          

 

Action

If appropriate, authorize the Interim City Manager to execute the proposed Fiber Memorandum of Understanding, MOU Addendum Number 1, and the Dark Fiber Lease Agreement with RG Fiber.