Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Wi-Fi plan will miss year-end deadline

Dunedin officials will allow more time for the wireless company to negotiate with Progress Energy over the use of utility poles.

By TERRI BRYCE REEVES
Published December 17, 2005

DUNEDIN - Dunedin won't be a wireless city by New Year's Eve.

City commissioners heard at Thursday's meeting that Citi WiFi Networks, which has contracted with Dunedin to provide citywide wireless access, wouldn't make their year-end deadline.

Company officials said it was because the approval process to use Progress Energy's utility poles was moving slower than expected.

"It's out of our control," said Frank McCarthy, president of the St. Petersburg company.

Commissioners, although displeased at the news, gave the company a 90-day extension to continue negotiating with Progress Energy, but it's not clear whether that would solve the problem.

"We're in a fix," said Mayor John Doglione. "How do we get out of it?"

Doglione said he would try to talk to some of his contacts in state government to see if the process could be streamlined.

But Nancy Loehr, community relations manager for Progress Energy, told commissioners the problem wouldn't be resolved any time soon.

"Our main business is to deliver electricity," she said. "This is not going to happen overnight."

The problem arose when city leaders and Citi WiFi officials discovered the city didn't actually own the light poles upon which the company planned to install its transmitters.

In order to connect the city, Citi WiFi needs to attach about 100 to 120 radio transmitters to utility poles. Though the poles are owned by Progress Energy, they are governed and regulated by the Public Service Commission and the Federal Communications Commission. Citi WiFi is limited in where and how the transmitters can be attached.

"Our research indicated that the city owned the light poles, but they had given them to Progress Energy three years before," McCarthy said.

In May, commissioners approved a contract with Citi WiFi, a private company that would provide subscriber-only wireless Internet service throughout Dunedin for $25 a month.

But the city's plan to bridge the digital divide has bogged down over logistical and legal issues.

Cherie Jacobs, spokeswoman for Progress Energy, said the utility company is cooperating with Dunedin and Citi WiFi, but they were in uncharted territory.

"This is an unusual project," she said. "We've never had one like this before."

McCarthy said the backbone of the network is already in place. Currently, there is WiFi access downtown with about six transmitters installed on city-owned property and at Mease Dunedin Hospital. More than 550 Dunedin residents have presubscribed to the service.

And Progress Energy recently gave WiFi permission to install transmitters on at least eight utility poles scattered through town.

Commissioner Deborah Kynes said she still clings to the hope that Dunedin can be the first wireless city in the state.

"We may have the most headaches because we are the first city to do this," she said.

HEIGHT LIMITATIONS: Commissioners approved, on first reading, a revised amendment on building heights downtown that also waived a 16-foot first floor requirement for retail and office buildings through an appeal. Height limitations range from 40 to 52 feet based on the streets' location, width of right of way, usage and public benefit.

CHARTER AMENDMENTS: Voters will be able to decide on four charter amendments during the March election. One states that the city can use its power of eminent domain only to take property for a public purpose. Another forbids the city to sell, donate or transfer parkland or waterfront property without a referendum election. A third sets the date of the election, while another sets the date for selection of the vice mayor.

BURIAL FEES: Burial fees in Dunedin Cemetery will rise from $750 to $2,500 for a burial plot. Two-space cremorial units are $1,350. Burial in the scatter garden and a plaque will be $200.

FAITH IN ACTION: The commission gave the nonprofit corporation, which provides independent living assistance, cell phone and safety phone distribution, $15,000 instead of the $12,000 it had requested.

[Last modified December 17, 2005, 01:01:18]