Networking the county

STEUBENVILLE - Jefferson County may be looking for an economical way to build an ultra-high-speed computer network to connect county offices, as well as to provide service to the industrial park and possibly the county airport.

A feasibility study for building a fiber-optic community network to serve government and business was unveiled in a meeting Wednesday at Eastern Gateway Community College. Tom Reid, president of Reid Consulting, presented the study's results and various options for building the network to a group of county, city and business leaders. The study began last October.

The bottom line is flexible, and, according to County Auditor Pat Marshall, may be able to be met by the county self-funding a basic network.

The need for the network, according to the study and county officials who spoke during the meeting, is that major network providers won't build small networks in rural areas because there aren't enough customers to make a profit, and connections government uses now are expensive.

For example, officials said one line used by the county 911 system costs $1,000 a month.

Savings would come because the county wouldn't be seeking a profit, and by the ability to offer other cost-saving services, such as voice over Internet protocol phone systems, to replace costly trunked systems in offices, Reid explained.

The network also would meet the needs of businesses inquiring about sites in the county, according to Ed Looman, director of the Progress Alliance economic development organization.

One option presented by Reid included about 18 miles of fiber optic cable to stretch in a loop from downtown to the industrial park area and back, catching hospitals, doctors offices, EGCC, the OME-RESA office and other sites along the way.

The proposal would include getting 50 sites, including commitments from non-county users, to sign on to the network. The total estimate was more than $1.4 million.

Reid suggested grants, including the potential for 50 percent funding from the Economic Development Administration, could be sought as well as the potential for other grants through the FCC and the involvement of the Connecting Appalachia program.

However, Dragan Lazic, technology administrator for the city of Steubenville, noted the city has crime cameras in various locations and can't sustain the cost for networking their feed to the police station indefinitely.

Marshall said building the backbone of the fiber optic system, connecting together county offices and the industrial park and the airport might be economically feasible, without delays while waiting for grants.

"The county needs this connectivity, and we don't necessarily have to depend on someone else signing on to build it," he said. Marshall said the concern is that if the county continues to wait for grants and goes through the process of getting multiple agencies and businesses to sign on, the delays will only put the county further behind, continuing to pay high costs for networking and not providing service to the industrial park.

Reid said, "The county and the city may have enough sites themselves to justify building this. If you do not have that kind of connectivity in the industrial park, what future does the industrial park have."

The speeds for the network would be 667 times faster than the common high-speed home service.

Looman said, "We receive numerous proposals from the Ohio Department of Development, and once they go through the questions about the site location, the top question is, 'Describe the broadband connectivity at the site.'"

Looman indicated it's critical to provide the fiber-optic network to the industrial park to further development of it and the adjacent New Horizons area, with more than 4,000 vacant acres.

Marshall said if the county can find a way to self-fund the project, it could market it to other organizations, including hospitals and businesses, after it's built.

Much of the discussion centered on partnering with OME-RESA, which already offers a number of high-tech services to area school districts. OME-RESA is a partner in the Connecting Appalachia program, which is building networks in counties in southern Ohio to connect schools and hospitals.

(Giannamore can be contacted at pgiannamore@heraldstaronline.com.)