“You don’t see them, but things are happening fast and furiously,” Town Finance Director and Broadband Committee advisor Amy Land told the Town Council in a joint meeting of the Council and the Broadband Committee on Thursday, Dec. 10.
After a bond that is not to exceed $8 million was approved by the voters of New Shoreham at a Financial Town meeting in July, and later given the seal of approval by the Council in September, the roll out of the island-wide broadband project is finally under way.
What residents don’t see is the extensive engineering work currently being performed. While additional fiber optic cable is being installed as part of the backbone of the system, mapping out the routes the fibers will travel to individual homes is still being worked out. In true Block Island fashion, current utility lines don’t necessarily follow direct routes, and rights of way for those utility lines along private property are being researched. Another Block Island challenge identified by Land was “conflicting fire numbers.”
While there is a preliminary project schedule that shows the installation of lines and drop offs at homes, Land said this would be revised once the engineering is
