— from Rock Island Communications —
San Juan County is allowing Rock Island Communications to install fiber optic cable in the conduit associated with the County’s Eastsound Village streetlight project.
“Co-locating our fiber optic cable in the streetlight conduit will save businesses located in Eastsound Village a great deal on connection costs,” said Gerry Lawlor, Rock Island’s Executive Vice President. “And, it will help us connect those businesses more quickly.”
“San Juan County Council member Rick Hughes and County Manager Mike Thomas were instrumental in making this happen,” said Foster Hildreth, General Manager of OPALCO and President of Rock Island. “It’s the best use of our county and co-op resources to utilize the existing streetlight conduit for dual purposes.”
Rick Hughes added, “I strongly support OPALCO and Rock Island joining forces to bring high-speed broadband to Eastsound and to the entire County. This is another example of how San Juan County is spearheading economic development in our community and solving complex issues in cooperation with local businesses.”
Rock Island Communications provides modern, scalable and reliable broadband services for homes and businesses in San Juan County and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Orcas Power & Light Cooperative. For more information, go to www.rockisland.com and follow us on Facebook.
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What streetlight project? Is there a county sponsored streetlight project underway?
Thank you! I was wondering the same thing Justin.
The conduit for street lights was put in place back when we laid the sidewalks about 25 years ago. It was far sighted then and if memory serves a whole bunch of local business owners paid for it!
We’re hoping that we’re not going to have a whole lot of street-
lights in Eastsound in the near future as there does not seem to be a huge need for them at this time!!
Folks just for clarity, there is no formal plan on the table to develop street lighting at this stage, it is something for the county and community to advance as it sees fit. The above decision just allows Rock Island to access existing conduit that was installed many many years ago. If the day comes that street lighting is deployed the same conduit will be used to feed necessary electric lines. So we would share a common infrastructure it that happens.
I know this article is about Rock Island and their cable installations, but I’m still going to say this: I’m sorry but we absolutely do need some sort of mild lighting in Eastsound. I’d be surprised if any other business owners actually disagreed with me on this one. We need security. Especially with many of the “shady” events happening in recent years!!!
Thanks Martha. That clarification helps. So since local businesses paid for the conduit, do they in return own the rights to use, or does the county own the rights to use?
If the county does, then perhaps someone could enlighten us as to what compensation the county is receiving for the right of this access? It would be great to hear the details of this arrangement. Thanks in advance!
I believe the conduit was paid for by local businesses and the ditching was a shared expense between OPALCO and the County. The local businesses donated the money as they never intended to be in the utility business but rather hoped someday to enjoy the increased security and safety the lighting would provide. The Outlook Inn went ahead and at their own expense put in the street lights on the property because guests moving around in the dark was a huge liability. As always the cost of putting in the sidewalks was more expensive than planned; there was no money leftover for lights so the lights stalled. The sidewalks–attractive as they are (like planks laid down)–should be credited to the money and hard work of Joyce Burghardt, Dale Pederson and Starr Farish and a wonderful engineer from Seattle named Tony Puma.
The Eastsound Planning Review Committee and Chamber of Commerce are discussing the possible feasibility of some kind of low level pedestrian lighting to help with the issues Martha and Erica raise: safety and security. There is no plan to light up the town broadly, just to consider some low sidewalk lights to help with navigation in certain areas, as requested by many businesses in the village. This topic is on the schedule for preliminary discussion tonight at the Eastsound planning public meeting tonight at the Senior Center, 6 p.m., if you’d like more information.