Kitsap Business and Economy

By Chris Henry
chenry@kitsapsun.com
KITSAP COUNTY
The Kitsap Public Utility District will apply for a $3 million economic stimulus grant to expand Kitsap County’s fiber optic network.
The grant, if Kitsap receives it, has the potential to improve public safety and promote economic development.
The grant application, due March 26, is supported by Kitsap County government, local cities, the Suquamish Tribe, the county 911 service, the Department of Emergency Management, Central Kitsap School District and local fire districts, all of which would benefit from the network expansion.
Kitsap’s application is part of a roughly $90 million statewide grant application through the Northwest Open Access Network. The nonprofit NoaNet represents public utility districts, with a focus on rural areas underserved by high-speed Internet access.
Fiber optics are thin filaments of glass that transmit light and carry data, voice and video transmissions from one point to another at the speed of light. Kitsap PUD has 135 miles of cable through Kitsap County, all but about 5 percent above ground.
Each cable has 24 to
144 strands, each of which can carry multiple streams of data and has vast capacity for data transmission.

Branching out from Water
Kitsap PUD is a countywide “special purpose district” that until 2005 was simply a water utility provider. At the urging of local business owners and others, the PUD took advantage of a 2001 state law authorizing public utility districts to become wholesale fiber optic providers.
Bud Harris, director of information technology for Kitsap County, says it makes sense to vest a public entity with the job of developing telecommunication infrastructure. He likened it to the expansion of the interstate highway system, with public and private users traveling different lanes.
Access to the fiber optic “highway” is provided through retail telecommunication companies.
Development of the county’s fiber optic “backbone” will make high-speed Internet access more affordable to businesses in formerly underserved areas, Harris said. Having a wider network also will make the county appear more business-friendly, driving economic development, he said.
The primary purpose of the grant, however, is to complete the countywide network linking local governments, law enforcement, emergency services, schools, hospitals and libraries, all key players in the event of a catastrophic disaster.
Kitsap’s fiber optic network has expanded substantially in recent years. This network carries data crucial to day-to-day government activities as well as emergency response.
At one level are county, city, state and federal governments, including law and justice functions. At the next level is the network of first responders, including CenCom, DEM and fire districts. Kitsap County received a law and justice grant two years ago that put mobile computer terminals in all first responder vehicles, a critical step in expanding the emergency services network.

Disaster network on the way
Yet to be completed are links to a broader network of public service agencies dubbed “Kit-Net.” The grant also would provide for a dedicated port to be used in the event of a major disaster if other means of communication are knocked out.
Called CARE-Net for Citizens Access and Readiness Empowerment, the dedicated line will be provided free of charge.
In the event of an earthquake, for example, public officials and medical personnel could contact each other about safe places for people to congregate or receive care, as well as conditions or needs in various areas of the county.
“We’ve been trying to build this concept for the past five years,” Harris said. “This is the piece that brings it all to fruition.”
Kitsap PUD’s fiber optic build-out plan includes provisions for “redundancy” or back up lines to prevent major outages, such as the Internet blackout resulting from a fire Tuesday on Olalla Valley Road. That outage left Comcast customers throughout the Kitsap Peninsula out of the loop for more than three hours.
Central Kitsap School District stands to receive the most benefit from the stimulus grant, with
$2 million of the $3 million earmarked for fiber optic access to 28 of the district’s buildings. CKSD is the lone Kitsap school district still lacking fiber optics.
The grant requires a 30 percent match from Kitsap County, a total of $300,000, but the PUD can count work it has already done on the fiber optic network as a 20 percent match. The actual out-of-pocket match for all entities, therefore, is 10 percent.
Under this arrangement, CKSD would owe $200,000. The district is exploring alternative sources of funding the fiber optic infrastructure it needs in case the grant doesn’t come through.
The county’s share of the match will be $30,000. The Kitsap Regional Coordinating Council, which is wrangling verbal support and match money from those who stand to benefit, is asking $5,000 each from Port Orchard, Bremerton, Poulsbo, Bainbridge Island, CenCom/DEM, Kitsap Regional Library and the Suquamish Tribe.
Kitsap County will have to wait until September to find out if the PUD gets the grant. The utility district will have three years to complete the work.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 15th, 2010 at 8:42 am by Rachel Pritchett and is filed under Uncatagorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.