VILLAGE OF NORTH AURORA
OPERATIONS COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
APRIL 1, 2019
CALL TO ORDER
Trustee Mark Guethle called the meeting to order.
ROLL CALL
In attendance: Mayor Dale Berman, Trustee Mark Guethle, Trustee Mark Carroll, Village Administrator Steve Bosco, Finance Director Bill Hannah, IT Manager Dave Arndt.
AUDIENCE COMMENTS – None
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
1. Approval of the Operations Committee Minutes dated March 4, 2019
Motion to approve made by Trustee Carroll and seconded by Mayor Berman. All in favor. Motion approved.
NEW BUSINESS
1. Phone System Discussion
The Village currently has multiple contracts for phone services, internet and data. The phone system is not integrated with the Public Works Department and the village is using very outdated speeds for data transfers. The village is now looking at a comprehensive solution by going with a one source solution for phones, internet and data connections. The village reached out to AT&T, Comcast and MetroNet and received bids from Comcast and MetroNet.
Dave Arndt, IT Manager for the village, stated that the village is currently set up so that the Village and Police Department have a direct connection between the two which is a T1 which is outdated. All of the outlying places (public works, water department) connect to the village through the public internet (Comcast). AT&T is used for internet service for Public Works. Over the last 3 months, AT&T stopped transferring village encrypted traffic between our buildings.
Comcast is proposing a wide area network, running on Comcast coaxial over fiber network. It is not true fiber, but uses their fiber optics. The two water plants would continue connecting in through the Cloud. Comcast is giving true fiber right to the building at the police department which provides 70 MB. Comcast is a little less expensive. They have a faster WAN connection between village hall and public works. A down side is that they only gave the village one internet connection. If the internet were to go down at the police department, it would go down for the entire village. Arndt said he did not like that. Comcast is also still on coaxial which is cable on poles.
MetroNet has fiber buried in the ground. Their connection is a little slower between village hall and public works, but 10 MB is fine since we are currently running 1.5 MB. Arndt said that MetroNet would provide 100 MB between village hall and the police dept. They also gave 100 MB dedicated fiber up and down at the police department and at village hall or public works. It splits up the internet in two locations and there are two trunk lines running on opposite sides of the river. If there are problems with one side of the river, the other side should still be fine.
Arndt said that MetroNet has the better overall design. They are a little more expensive but the village would be getting a lot more in the end.
The phone system will be provided free of charge when going with the package. Servers are not in house but all in the Cloud (Hosted system).
Bosco said that the current monthly cost is $3700. Comcast is just over $3700 and MetroNet is just over $4000. This would typically be a 5-year contract to have the free phones. The expense to the village will be $241,000 vs $224,000. Difference of $17,000 over 5 years.
The committee was in favor of moving forward with MetroNet.
The bids will be proposed to the Board on April 15th. Once approved, it will take 3-4 months for construction.
OLD BUSINESS – None
OTHER INFORMATION – None
TRUSTEE COMMENTS – None
ADJOURNMENT
Motion to adjourn made by Trustee Carroll and seconded by Mayor Berman. All in favor. Motion approved. Motion approved.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lori J. Murray
Village Clerk
