Fiber installation impacts city water system

The City of Sundance is dealing with an unexpected consequence of the switchover to fiber internet: the loss of the old copper wire could impact the functionality of the SCADA monitoring system that controls the water tanks which feed the town.

“Range Telephone did fiber-to-the-home in Sundance, the problem being that up until now we’ve always had our water systems controlled by off-on switches,” said Mayor Paul Brooks last week.

“Mac [Erickson, Public Works Director] and I have been in quite a little conversation with these folks concerning how we’re going to handle it because it’s not really our fault they want to be out of the copper system.”

The specific issue is that the copper system came with its own electricity, he said.

“What we’re running into is that our system is fairly complex and exactly how to make it all work across the fiber is difficult,” he said. “The other problem with fiber is that it has no electricity.”

Without electricity, the on-off switches would need to be powered via individual small batteries, each with its own meter. Brooks described himself as “pretty emphatic” that he does not want half a dozen meters installed for this purpose.

Aside from the practical considerations, the mayor pointed out that altering the system could be costly.

“We, collectively, do not feel it’s our job to spend a whole lot of our money and raise the rates to facilitate hooking onto the fiber,” he said of the city staff.

“They want all the copper down,” said Brooks. “I have a huge conflict of interest with this [as a Range employee], but I also am a rate payer at heart and I don’t want this thing to get so spun out of control that we have to raise rates to cover us.”

“It’s been kind of a back-and-forth struggle,” he continued, stating that there have been “a lot of meetings” with Range in the effort to find a solution.

“The last discussion was that they are looking for a consultant to go through the water system, analyze it and try to come up with a plan of what we need to do,” he said.

“The problem is finding a consultant,” he said, explaining that the size of the town is an issue because few consultants are interested in such small projects.

Council Member Callie Hilty questioned whether this has been an issue in other towns. The mayor explained that most towns in Wyoming who have seen an upgrade are larger and have bigger coffers, so the cost is not a big deal.

“To us, it’s a great big deal,” he said. “We’re going to be a small town with fiber, which is virtually unheard-of, so this is kind of new ground all over.”

At some point, said the mayor, Range Telephone will bring a proposal to solve this issue before the council. When that happens, it will be the council’s decision as to how they want to proceed.

“We’re looking at a zero net,” he said of the attitude city staff have carried into the meetings so far. “I’m not sure that’s what [Range] have in mind, but that’s what we want.”

The mayor also pointed out for the council’s consideration that it should be borne in mind that the upgrade to fiber may be problematic right now, but could allow upgrades to the system in the future and be a benefit to the city.