Maya McFadden photo
Farnam Center IT Manager James Mitchell at that organization’s new computer lab.
Zoom
Thursday night’s CSEP meeting.
The city is accelerating plans to set up free Wi-Fi in Newhallville in an attempt to provide high-quality Internet access to New Haveners stuck at home during the Covid-19 pandemic, and as part of a broader goal of bridging the city’s “digital divide.”
City Acting Budget Director and Acting Controller Michael Gormany detailed those plans Thursday night during the latest Board of Alders City Services and Environmental Policy (CSEP) committee meeting, which took place entirely online via the Zoom tele-conferencing app.
Gormany (pictured) was joined by city Information Technology Deputy Director Chet Sawicki and former city Controller Daryl Jones as he urged alders to adopt a two-year “New Haven Digital Inclusion” plan that city staff developed during the final months of former Mayor Toni Harp’s time in office late last year.
The plan, which now advances to the full Board of Alders for a vote, describes how low-income residential areas of the city currently lack consistent, affordable access to the Internet and how critical the Internet is for accessing jobs, education, healthcare, and government services in the 21st century.
Quality internet access is more important now during the Covid-19 pandemic than it was even just a few months ago, Gormany said. Schools are shuttered, forcing students to continue their education online. Many work places are closed, forcing employees to do their jobs virtually and remotely. And many government buildings are shuttered, forcing citizens to access municipal services and meetings through online platforms like Zoom.
“We can buy Chromebooks for our kids,” Gormany said. But if they don’t have WiFi or some other kind of Internet access at home, “those devices aren’t really doing any good.”
Sawicki (pictured) agreed. “Zoom has kind of risen to the top as the choice for these types of meetings,” he said. “Without having any kind of Internet connection, it makes it very difficult. It isolates people.”
Gormany said that the Harp administration put out a Request for Proposals (RFP) late last year looking for companies interested in helping build out a pilot project focused on bringing free WiFi to the Newhallville neighborhood.
He said the one company to submit a response was Spot On Networks, the local company that worked with the city to establish free WiFi on the New Haven Green starting in 2017.
He said city staff is reviewing that RFP and talking with the vendor about next steps.
“This Covid-19 has had us really re-evaluate how we could get this project going a little quicker,” he said. “Now it’s really high in the bucket in the priority list.”
Gormany said that the city is also talking with GoNetSpeed about working with the city to expand its local fiber network as part of this digital inclusion plan.
What would be the cost of maintaining a new WiFi network and of building out new fiber connections? asked Newhallville/Prospect Hill Alder Steve Winter (pictured).
“Yes, there would obviously be a cost of building it out,” Gormany said. That cost ultimately depends on the structure of whatever “public-private partnership” the city agrees to with a prospective Internet provider. “We’re trying to figure out which direction we’re going to go.”
Quinnipiac Meadows Alder Gerald Antunes (pictured) pressed on that point. No estimate whatsoever on the cost of this? he asked.
“This would be considered a capital project,” Gormany said. “We would work with the vendor and try to work it into our capital budget for the next fiscal year.”
How about maintenance? Antunes asked. Who would be responsible for that?
“We’d be looking to have an outside vendor maintain it,” Sawicki replied.
And what about a target start and completion date? asked Antunes.
Gormany said he hopes to resume conversations with Spot On about their response to the RFP next week. Jones estimated that establishing free WiFi in Newhallville, as well as in other areas of the city like the Hill and East Shore, could take between six and nine months depending on how aggressively the city pursues this project.
Elm City Innovation Collaborative Director Michael Harris (pictured) spoke up during the public testimony section of the hearing in support of the city treating Internet access like a “public utility.”
“Everyone is clear in the middle of this crisis that, more than ever, the Internet is a necessity.”
He said that his organization has partnered with the city’s housing authority to ensure that city seniors and low-income residents have access to the Internet and electronic devices. He said that one in five households throughout the public housing authority’s system currently have no access to the Internet.
“The importance of this cannot be stressed enough,” he said. He called on the alders to not just pass a one-time digital inclusion plan, but to hold a standing digital inclusion group that would host public meetings, coordinate efforts among various organizations around the city, and establish clear goals around digital inclusion in the years to come.
He said this issue is not just one that the city needs to solve in the next five weeks because of the pandemic — though that is true as well. He said the city should also work over the next five years to ensure that as many New Haveners as possible have access to the Internet so that they can participate in the burgeoning digital economy.