Gary Kleppe/Motorcycle Track. Gary Kleppe and the Council's Finance Committee met on April 4 to discuss Kleppe's possible purchase of several acres of City property at the end of Birch Drive. This is the area that is south of the S&H Building and the Woodform Company. The City also operates its Brush Pile on some of those acres. Preliminary terms of a possible sale are as follows:

1.) The sale would be a "lease-to-purchase" over 5 years with either equal payments or amortized over a longer period with a balloon payment on the end. An interest rate hasn't been discussed yet.

2.) The land price would be $750 per acre for the timbered and more uneven acres. The more level acres would sell for $1250 per acre. The City would retain enough land and access for the brush pile.

3.) The City would have a first right of refusal if Kleppe should ever sell the site.

4.) Kleppe mentioned that he might want to have the site open for more than just weekends. He wants it opened for 2 days during the week in the afternoons.

Before moving forward with these or any other terms, the Finance Committee decided to ask the City Attorney for a written legal opinion on whether or not the City's Zoning Ordinance allowed for a motorcycle/ATV/snowmobile track to operate within the zoning of the property. The property is zoned, I-3, Heavy industrial.

Sidewalk Committee Meets on March 20 and April 3. The Sidewalk Committee conducted a public hearing on March 20 before several residents of S Jones Street. S Jones had been nominated as the next area from where the City would install sidewalks. The residents that live on both sides of S Jones were invited to the meeting.

The citizens at the hearings were mainly against the proposed project stating that S Jones has a number of elderly people who cannot physically or financially maintain a sidewalk.

A number of audience members stated, however, that, although they felt there would be better uses for the money, they could "live with it" if a project were pursued.

The Committee took the input from the public hearing under advisement and met again on April 3 to try to finalize a recommendation to the City Council.

The Committee passed a motion to recommend that the Council move forward with a sidewalk project on S Jones to start at W Summit on the west side of S Jones then move to the east side of S Jones just before reaching the intersection of Thomas Ave. The sidewalk would then continue on the east side of S Jones until it reaches W Platt Street. The Committee also recommended that the sidewalk be installed a foot closer to the street than usual in order to protect trees that exist along the street.

In other action, the Committee made a recommendation that the Council's Public Safety Committee consider putting in 3-way stop signs at the point where Thomas Ave meets S Jones.

The Committee also voted to recommend that the Public Works Dept replace three street corners that have steps in the existing sidewalk along S Main with handicap accessible slopes. The area along S Main extends from W Maple to the Dairy Queen on the west side.

Telecommunications Panel Discussion. The Maquoketa Chamber of Commerce sponsored a Chamber Luncheon on March 26, 2002 at the Maquoketa Country Club that involved a panel discussion regarding telecommunications and the needs of Maquoketa.

In today’s world the need for broadband internet access in increasing dramatically.

(The photo at the left shows some of the 76 people who attended the Chamber's panel discussion on telecommunications.

Several people raised their hands when asked if high-speed data access was important to their businesses.)

The panel consisted of 5 panelists. Two were representatives from business that are heavily dependent on high-speed data services: Brian Hintgen of Alliance Pipeline and Chad Specht of Ohnward. The other three panelists represented companies that provide these services: Kathy McMullen of Mediacom, John Regan of RCS Computer, and Kevin Nekvinda of You Squared, a wireless internet company.

Approximately 76 people turned out in the audience to hear discussion and possibly get questions answered.

Brian Hingten stated that Alliance Pipeline is looking for speed and reliability in telecommunications. Alliance is a small business but it shares a huge amount of data with others. Because security is so important, fiber optic is the only option that will work for Alliance.

Chad Specht of Ohnward has been a member of the Maquoketa Telecommunications Committee for some time. He mentioned that several needs of Maquoketa are being met now by Mediacom but under a controlled environment. The first step for the Telecommunications Committee was to send a survey to citizens of Maquoketa to try to find out the needs and wishes of customers. The response to the survey was very good.

Kathy McMullen reported that on March 11, 2002, Mediacom brought high speed internet to the City of Maquoketa and the response has been very good. The total cost per month is $45.95 for residential customers. Mediacom hopes to be able to offer high speed internet to small business in the near future.

McMullen invited everyone to an open house at the Mediacom office on Saturday, April 6, 2002 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. to try the high speed internet service.

Mediacom is currently doing a test project in Waterloo that offers high speed internet to businesses. The results should be available in October of 2002. If the results are good, Mediacom hopes to bring this service to other communities.

John Regan announced that he has partnered with You Squared to offer high speed internet service to Maquoketa. This service will not be limited to the City limits. Mr. Regan will be the local support person in Maquoketa and You Squared will provide the technical support.

Paul Miller, a local business owner, commented that he lives in Delmar and owns a business in Maquoketa. When he has large amounts of information to send over the internet he sends it from Delmar because he has high speed internet there. He questioned why some of the small towns have this available but a town the size of Maquoketa does not.

City Manager Brian Wagner, who served as the moderator for the panel discussion, agreed that this is a problem. He stated that a town the size of Maquoketa is too large for some of the companies offering high-speed internet to a town the size of Delmar but Maquoketa is too small for companies offering this service to larger towns. The Telecommunications Committee has been meeting with several companies to try to bring this service to Maquoketa.

Telecommunications Committee Meeting on March 27. The City Council's Telecommunications Committee met on March 27 to talk to representatives of Qwest, our local telephone company, and You-Squared, the wireless internet company that is looking to begin operations in Maquoketa.

Wayne Johnson/Qwest said that his company might participate with the City to do a project similar to what the City of Pocahontas, IA had done with a phone company from its area. The arrangement would be a joint partnership to provide wireless internet service.

The Committee asked if either DSL technology or equipment that would allow both telephone service and cable service to work over copper telephone could be deployed in Maquoketa, similar to how it has been done in states such as Arizona and Colorado. Johnson responded that the use of such equipment was not feasible unless used in area of high population density. He added that there would be two unspecified towns in Iowa where Qwest would deploy DSL service, but Maquoketa would not be one of those two communities.

The Committee asked Johnson if there was a chance the Qwest might be willing to sell the Maquoketa system to a local buyer, such as a local independent telephone company, that might come in and make improvements that Qwest either cannot or will not make. Johnson said that he wasn't sure if Qwest would ever sell an individual system as opposed to the traditional method of selling off a block of systems, but he said that he would inquire within his company to see if it was possible.

Johnson added that, a few years ago, US West (now Qwest) was much slower to respond to customers. He said that he thinks that Qwest is now more responsive and suggested that the City call him if we ever learn of a customer who has a problem with a particular service issue.

Johnson stated that a T-1 phone line in Maquoketa might cost about $250 per month more than it might in Dubuque or Davenport. The Committee members responded that there are other business expenses that are less in Maquoketa than they are in Dubuque or Davenport that would level out the playing field. For example, Maquoketa may have lower taxes, utility rates, and building costs.

Kevin Nekvinda and Jeff Harrelson answered questions about their business, You-Squared. Nekvinda mentioned that a City role in either wireless internet (such as working with Qwest as Wayne Johnson had mentioned) or telephone service would be expensive. He added that DSL over copper lines would be limited to about 18,000 feet from the equipment that creates it.

As for high-speed internet service, You-Squared wants to try to begin service on May 1, 2002.

The customer would have to have an antenna installed for his computer. The antenna can either be installed by the customer or by John Regan, who will have a role in You-Square's business for its Maquoketa customers. Regan operates his own computer service in Maquoketa.

The typical residential package that has been ordered from You-Square's Dubuque branch has been for 128k speed at $40 per month for 1 computer. There is a $250 set up charge and a minimum 1-year subscription.

The typical commercial package that has been ordered from their Dubuque operation has also been for 128k speed and a $70 per month charge for 2-5 computers, along with the $250 set up charge.