Iola City Council members aren’t yet ready to decide on a request to help an internet service provider pay for what would become a citywide fiber-optic network.
The Council was asked Monday by Iola-based KwiKom Communications to pay half the cost of the fiber-optic expansion.
KwiKom already has fiber-optic service through portions of Iola, primarily north of U.S. 54.
It would cost roughly $640,000 to cover much of the rest of Iola, KwiKom operations manager Eric Vogel said.
He requested the pay half the cost — $320,000 — to extend the private company’s reach to an additional 1,700 residences and 100 businesses in town.
The money would be repaid through the additional franchise fees Iola would receive by gaining more users, Vogel said.
He estimated the fee could be as much as $37,500 annually, plus another $7,000 to $10,000 per year in rental fees, because much of the fiber-optic line would be strung along city utility poles.
“You could easily look at it as a loan,” Vogel said, “with about a 10-year payoff.”
But because franchise and rental fees would go on in perpetuity, the city would continue to recoup the additional funds, well after the money is repaid, Vogel added.
As part of the “partnership,” KwiKom also would connect city offices at no charge with an L2 data link, which Vogel compared to running an ethernet cable between the buildings, making it possible to transfer voluminous data records between offices with ease.
KwiKom also would add public-access Wi-Fi hot spots to Cofachique Park and the John Silas Bass North Community Building, much like it already does at Iola’s Riverside Park, he said.
Vogel also stressed what he described as “intangible” benefits, such as making Iola more attractive to businesses, developers and work-from-home professionals.
THE COMPANY’S request drew a receptive response from Councilman Nickolas Kinder.
“I’m in favor of the project,” he said. “We’ve talked about wanting businesses to come to town. We’ve offered economic incentives to new businesses. … The intangible benefits make it definitely worth looking into.”
But Kinder’s motion to approve the request died without a vote when none of the other Council members seconded it.
Councilwoman Kim Peterson spoke out against the request.
