The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities has approved a resolution to establish a Digital Services Division.
BPU General Manager Kris Sellstrom said the resolution requests Jamestown City Council to pass a local law to recognize the new division, “City Council can do one of two things. They could designate it as a public utility, in which case the current Charter would cover most of it. I think they’re going to go with the charter amendment to actually more formally add the language about the Digital Services and Infrastructure Division into the City Charter.”
The new division would own, operate and maintain the utility’s open-access fiber network and support future digital infrastructure initiatives. The nine-member Board of Public Utilities will govern the new division which will be maintained as a financially self-sustaining operation with finances segregated from the BPU’s other utility divisions.
Jamestown City Council tabled the local law for 30 days at its Monday night voting session. It will be acted on at Council’s October 26 voting session.
Sellstrom also shared with the board that fiber installation is now taking place in the downtown Jamestown area, “Most complicated one has a lot of underground. There’s hardly any aerial work in the in the downtown area. There is aerial work north of Sixth Street, from Sixth Street to I think it’s 15th Street maybe. That area hasn’t had service yet, but that’ll all be fed out of Chadakoin substation, so we couldn’t start that area of work until we had a plant, a formalized engineering plant for the downtown, because of the fiber routes through that area.”
Sellstrom reminded folks in the BPU’s electric service area that Wednesday, September 30 is the last day to sign up for the BPU’s Community Fiber and receive the service for free for 90 days. For more information, visit https://www.jamestownbpufiber.com/
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