Should Bridgeport be called Gigacity – or perhaps Gigaport?

 

Members of City Council quickly pondered that question during a portion of Monday night’s meeting. The topic at hand was the upcoming high speed internet pilot program during which 100 homes in the area of Village, Vista , Valley and Ridgeway drives will test drive a high-speed fiber network that could prove up to 200 times faster than typical internet service.

 

On Aug. 25, Council voted unanimously to approve a $100,000 budget revision for the purchase of fiber optic cable and other intangible equipment to put the program in motion. Monday night, another unanimous vote took place – this time to approve a Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Bridgeport and CityNet, defining both parties’ responsibilities with regard to the pilot program. The City will purchase the equipment to provide the one-gigabit-per-second internet service – not to exceed the $100,000 appropriated. CityNet’s end of the deal is providing the infrastructure to extend the fiber optic cable to the designated homes and taking care of maintenance.

 

The city targets January of 2015 to launch the project and late-June as an end date. After data is compiled and studied from the six-month period, a recommendation may be made to Council to implement the super high speed internet service city-wide.

 

Also Monday night, Council held a public hearing with regard to the city’s Home Rule application.

 

“Recent strategic planning included an ordinance and description which was established and put forth at City Hall for public scrutiny for up to 30 days,” said City Manager Kim Haws. “The next step is for Council to approve the ordinance to allow the city to make application to the Home Rule committee at which time they will consider all comments from the public meeting tonight, as well as in the application.”

 

As there was no public comment, a first reading of an ordinance to approve the application followed. Another reading will take place at the next regularly scheduled Bridgeport City Council meeting. Then, each amended item in the application will be defined via ordinance and approved by Council. Ultimately, the application will be submitted to the Home Rule board – hopefully in October.

 

“And that will enable the city to take those steps to bring information back to Council if they desire to pass the ordinances, putting them into effect and enabling the legislation,” Haws said. (Look for more detail on the Home Rule matter later today on Connect-Bridgeport.) 

 

Council also voted Monday night to reappoint Alison Deem to the Bridgeport Public Library board for a five-year term.  

 

Library Director Sharon Saye shared earlier Monday that Deem has been a conscientious board member, who has always been reliable, concerned about the library and the future of libraries, in general. Deem served on the West Virginia State Library Commission in the early 2000s and has been the secretary of Bridgeport Public Library for several years.

 

“Her minutes are always right on the money,” Saye said. “We all depend on her cool head and quiet insights.  The Board just wouldn't be the same without her.”

 

Also Monday night, several individuals spoke in favor of Saturday’s Indian Run at Charles Pointe, at which about 600 middle school and high school athletes participated. Jamie Corton praised the city – including Parks and Recreation Director Don Burton and his staff and Greater Bridgeport CVB Executive Director Michelle Duez – for hard work and support. BHS Cross Country Coach Jon Griffith added that police and fire personnel contributed greatly to the event. On behalf of other parents, Wendy Funk spoke up and said she also wished to thank the city for its tremendous support of the event.

 

Monday night’s meeting started off in a work session - which before going into executive session – addressed an ongoing problem at the Hinkle and Deegan Lake facilities: Geese – and in particular, their droppings.

 

Complaints continue to come in that families and small children cannot utilize the playground equipment, picnic shelters and even walking trails because of the volume of Canada Geese and what they continually leave behind.

 

Councilor Diana Marra said during July and August, she fielded a number of phone calls with complaints to that effect.

 

The question, City Manager Kim Haws said, is whether it is a big enough problem to address in an active manner. One course of action would be to hire a federal agency specializing in environmental control to harass the geese into migrating to other territory. Referred to as an integrated wildlife plan approach, there is no danger to the geese or other wildlife. With a ceiling price of about $7,000, it would be guaranteed that the geese – all of them - would eventually disappear from not only Hinkle and Deegan Lakes, but also Charles Pointe and other local areas. That could happen sooner than later at a fraction of the ceiling price, Assistant City Manager Jimmy Smith said. There are various techniques utilized to harass the geese.

 

It was ultimately decided that Council would take a close look at the situation and determine just how problematic it is by performing an informal study, including photos and conversation with individuals who frequent the lakes and other areas with high Canada geese population.

 

“We’ll come back to the next Council meeting with a proposal,” Marra said.

 

If Council decides to utilize the integrated wildlife plan approach, early fall is the recommended time, Smith said. 

 

The big news at Monday's City Council meeting was the resignation of Mayor Mario Blount. Read about it HERE.