THE HYDRO MANAGER ONCE CALLED NELSON FIBER HIS UTILITY
Then the BCUC began to ask questions about Nelson hydro's involvement.
A new city job appeared, Director of Technology, insiders told me to distance the hydro manager from Nelson Fiber, the BCUC were asking questions.
The city HR manager got the job, her new title, HR Manager, Corporate Safety Officer and Director of Technology. Each coming with a salary increase. NO background or training, or experience in safety or technology I am aware of.
I never saw the job posted on the Nelson Tech & Knowledge workers face book page, they present any sniff of a tech job within a hundred miles to their members.
I emailed the city questioning the city HR manager getting the job, they replied nobody in the public applied
I posted that to the Nelson Tech & Knowledge worker face book page, comments like "something stinks" were made.
Followed by a post from a "Ginger" speaking in first person, there is an executive city secretary with that name.
Her post stated the job was only posted internally???! What is the truth?
Everything was removed and I was blocked from the face book page.
There were complaints.
I was reinstated and told I was on thin ice, not everyone agreed I should be allowed back.
Recently I made a comment critical of the city, immediatley blocked, turns out city councilor Keith Page is a site administrator, he must have been at the computer at that moment and blocked me.
There was another poster blocked critical of the city, by who? the councilor?
No free speech on that face book page, councilor Page is the cities censor.
Did you know the city is in the internet business? They have what is called dark fibre, like waterpipe with no water, where does the water come from, the Real Internet Providers who already
own all the customers and with Telus now spending $20M to bring fibre to the home in all of Nelson, whereas Nelson Fibre is literally only available on Baker St. and corridors out to the schools, how do they expect to attract any customers.
With 4000 city households Shaw and Telus own all the internet business since 2005 Nelson Fiber has attracted 28 real customers, all the rest are government.
With about 10km of fiber cable, estimates $20 to $90K per km. see map below
For example Rosemont , two customers, Selkirk College and the Elementary school. City income maybe $200/mo. Payback on possible 5 km of cable $100-400K? Never. And will the schools now leave to the provincial Telus Ministry of education system fiber FirstGen used everywher else?
The city spin, Nelson Fibre is a utility, they don't have to make money. (yet they claim to save $100k and earn $100K annually?) The manager $97K/yr and two fulltime IT people. With maybe 28 real customers what are these people doing? NF might have 60 total connections, most schools and other government offices who have their own IT people.
What will city council do now that NelsonFibre wants their rates reduced to "be competitive"?
(taxpayer subsidized competition for the real providers!)
THE DIRTY DOZEN REPORT
Some excerpts from this report
the reality that government
broadband networks are almost always a financial catastrophe for the
government and its taxpayers. In an effort to “keep up with the
Joneses” state and local officials frequently pour money into
government internet projects without considering that nearly every
government that has gone into the internet business found itself
worse of f
Construction costs for broadband
networks frequently go over budget, customer subscription numbers
rarely meet projections,
the expenditures did nothing to
improve the lives of the people served by government-owned networks.
government broadband networks
represent some of the most unsuccessful, wasteful and flawed
local internet projects,
By any objective measure, the
growth of municipal broadband networks has been one of the most
disastrous movements to hit local and state governments in decades.
Government internet projects unnecessarily put tax dollars at risk,
needlessly reduce the resources available for valuable government
services and unfairly compete against private businesses in the
marketplace.
COULD THE CITY BE DOING SOMETHING ILLEGAL?
My reading of the Community Charter is reserve funds borrowed for other purposes
must be repaid with interest.
NelsonFibre has used Water Licence Reserve funds, the question is what are these funds
reserved for and how does NF expect to repay this with interest when they have no
expectation of a profit?
NelsonFibre has been built with grant money, Nelson Hydro workers have worked on it, yet when the BCUC in its annual rate revue asks NH if they are involved with NF, the response, a clever non answer "that is from another budget".....would that be the water reserve fund?
Try to get a breakout of the financial picture for NelsonFibre, it doesn't exist.
Yet they say it saves the city $100,000/year and is self sustaining.
How is this possible, the only real income is from maybe 28 subscribers who pay
$150/mo to the city and then have to go out and get an Internet service plan when they can
get this directly for less from the major ISP providers.
Now that Telus fibre to the home is being installed in Nelson, what are they thinking.
They have no residential customers although they have had years to attract one.
Very few residents would have access anyways because their line doesn't exist where
most of the residents live.
The only financials available show Nelson Fibre lost money, that is for 2016.
When will this city begin to make decisions to benefit taxpayers instead of some
ego misguided and misinformed project of no value.
Nelson is going down the same rabbit hole with taxpayers money as did all these
other cities.
There was nothing in the 2020 public budget regarding Nelson Fibre. The report did say
any questions? contact budget@nelson.ca
I did, asking for the financials for Nelson Fiber..........weeks went by no reply I reminded
the CFO, he replied " I will have to throw some numbers together for you"..........time went on
nothing. Recently (mid aug. 2020 I repeated my request) still nothing.
MY CALCULATIONS FROM KNOWN INFORMATION AS FOLLOWS:
Above is a consultants report showing 26 real customers, every other connection is a taxpayer
funded location.
The city is DARK FIBRE, like water pipe with no water, presently the city receives $50/mo
from commercial business, non profits, and $100/strand from schools and others.
Doing the math one arrives at $4800/mo income. There is about 10km of city fibre cable, who paid for this? you will never know. Nelson hydro did have linemen do some work, one was sent for fibreoptic training but hydro likes to deny being involved.
The BCUC asked about NH involvement, the manager stated "that was another budget". This was never pursued. Thank you once again to half of Nelson hydro customers who don't live in the city but their hydro bill helps pay for city items.
Someone who knows more than I suggested the city is in for about $2M.
Research suggests 1 km of fibre cable can cost from $20 to $90K.
The manager $97K with two full time IT persons, total about $220K/yr plus
offices benefits etc. easily $300k/yr
DHC communications is billing about $100K/yr, I don't know how much is fibre work
but they have the exclusive on this I believe.
Business case borrowed $2M over 20 years $12,000/mo payments
employees as above $300K/yr $25K/mo
DHC ~ $8K/mo.
monthly totals from above $45k/mo. or 10 times the income $4500/mo.
