PORT ANGELES — Clallam County has signed a fiber-optic use agreement with Capacity Provisioning, Inc., that mirrors the one the Port Angeles City Council approved a month ago.
The seven-year deal will cost $1,754 per month after taxes to provide fiberoptic connections at eight county sites.
It will save taxpayers thousands of dollars over the course of the agreement, said County Administrator Jim Jones.
The county now spends about $2,000 per month for fiberoptics.
“It’s a pretty healthy savings,” Jones said.
CPI, a Port Angeles firm, will install high-speed fiber at the Third Street Professional Building that the county is remodeling for its Health and Human Services department at no extra cost.
Commissioners Mike Doherty, Mike Chapman and Steve Tharinger approved the contract by a unanimous vote on Tuesday.
“It’s quite a costs savings to the county,” Chapman said.
Length of contract
CPI had the original contract with the county and lowered the price for the next seven years. The county piggybacked on the city’s bid process, which included an offer from Wave Broadband. CPI’s proposal was 42 percent less, city officials said.
The lone reservation commissioners had was the length of the contract. Those concerns were assuaged by a 30-day opt-out by either side for any one of the connections.
A shorter contract would have cost more money than the seven-year agreement does, Clallam County Information Technology Director Dan Flynn said.
Fiber connects computers at county facilities and allows staff to share and access documents.
Clallam County has the option of bumping up connectivity to 1 gigabit per second, which is about 10 times faster than the 100 megabite per second running now, at any one of the eight sites for an extra $15 per connection.
It’s an option the county may pursue at the Clallam County Juvenile Services Detention Facility, where the county will back up its servers, and for processing electronic medical records at the Third Street Building.
The county now spends $210 per month for each connection under a three-year lease that would have increased to $230 per month.
Under the new contract, it will cost $175 per connection. CPI runs fiber to the Clallam County Courthouse, the road department and Clallam County Fairgrounds.
CPI will provide a point-to-point dark fiber connection between the courthouse and the Clallam County Public Utility District hut for $515.50 per month, and between the courthouse and the juvenile center for $430 per month.
The Port Angeles City Council approved a seven-year use agreement with CPI on April 6. It cut the city’s monthly bill from $5,679 to $5,045 before tax.
Jones recommended the contract to the three commissioners and thanked CPI for offering the same agreement as the city’s.
“The city — with 40 connections — and us with eight, it made a lot more sense for them to give the city the deal than it did for them to extend it to us,” Jones said.
“They took money out of their pocket to help the citizens of Clallam County save a little bit of money.”
Conservation manager
In other action, the commissioners approved a $75,000 resource conservation manager grant with the state Department of Commerce. Clallam County will hire a conservation manager to help itself, Olympic Medical Center, Clallam Transit and the cities of Port Angeles and Sequim reduce energy output.
The program will be monitored during the two-year grant. The partnership will cover a 50 percent match on a prorated basis based on how much energy that public entity uses.
“The idea is to hire this person and then develop programs to save energy by either finding alternative sources or insulating and the better use of conservation measures with our partners,” Tharinger said.
Jones on Monday said he hopes to hire a conservation manager by early June.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
