What appears to be a routine action at Monday night’s Marysville City Council meeting, is actually part of what has been a frustrating project for city and county officials.
The money to be appropriated, $75,500, will be used to push fiber through the local, redundant fiber loop. The money is necessary because the project has hit a snag and several entities and companies cannot agree on who is to blame.
“There is a lot of finger pointing going on,” Union County Administrator Tim Hansley said.
More than five years ago, officials from various entities around Union County agreed to pay to install a loop of broadband Internet fiber along U.S.33 from Dublin to TRC in East Liberty. Shortly after, the Ohio and U.S. departments of transportation agreed to pay for and even expand the project.
While ODOT agreed to pay for the project on U.S. 33 and for the fiber in the redundant loop, local entities were responsible for laying the conduit for that portion.
“It is nice to have many partners, but with so many involved, it is about as complicated a project as there is,” Hansley said, noting that each partner had different contractors as well as ways money needed to be spent and accounted for.
Union County Engineer Jeff Stauch explained that in 2017, the Council of Governments (COG) partnered with private company laying conduit for other projects. He said that by partnering, it kept the cost down and was “a win-win.”
Hansley said there is “a lot of strange terrain” along the route. Additionally, he said the right of way already has a lot of utilities already installed taking up space. The conduit company “got in there and had to make a lot of twists and turns.”
Stauch said that when the fiber company tried to run the fiber strands through the conduit, there was a problem.
Hansley said the instillation company struggled to get the fiber through the conduit because of the angles.
The county administrator said officials tried to work with the company, which eventually backed out of the project.
“In their mind, the whole system was suspect and they didn’t want there to be a problem with their fiber not working because of this,” Hansley said.
He said the COG could have continued to battle, but “we all just want to get this done as quickly as possible.”
Stauch said the COG hired its own company to run the fiber through the conduit.
“So far, things are going well,” Stauch said.
Hansley noted the company is seeing less issues than anticipated.
Originally, officials budgeted $151,000 for the new company to complete the project. The bill is to be split evenly between the city and the county.
Stauch said that with the way the project is progressing, he is optimistic the final price tag will be closer to $100,000.
Additionally, he said the company will likely have the fiber run by the end of next week.
Officials hope that once the project is done, they can negotiate with the companies and entities involved to recoup some of the expenses.
“We have had some meetings with our lawyers and with their lawyers. We have had some long meetings,” Hansley said.
He said that hopefully by the time an agreement is reached, the fiber is lit, operational and making money for everyone involved.
Stauch said there will be seven bundles of fiber run through the conduit. One bundle will be for the local governments to use. The others will be available for businesses or other entities to access, for a fee.
Hansley said the sooner the project is finished, the sooner it can make money. He said the roadside towers are also moving quickly and that portion of the project is on or ahead of schedule.
Hansley said he knows it is more difficult to negotiate after a project, but said, “at some point, time is more than the important than money. We just need to get this open.”