County ready to improve fiber optics in Millersburg

In 1963 famous country crooner Johnny Cash sang a song about the “Ring of Fire.” Holmes County commissioners are currently in the process of creating a “Ring of Fiber.”

The commissioners met with BluShift Wireless representatives Kyle Yoder and Dean Anderson on Monday, June 7 to discuss the ongoing effort to create a more advantageous fiber optics “ring” system within Millersburg that could eventually branch out into a wider ranging system to allow businesses heading in each direction from Millersburg a chance to tie on and improve internet speed and efficiency.

The BluShift Wireless team provided input on creating four different phases to incorporate a more efficient fiber system in Millersburg to provide better service to all of the county offices and other entities.

“The plan will be to bring a main fiber feed into Clinton Street that would tie into this ring, and it would be a much faster speed,” Yoder said.

Yoder said they have worked closely with Millersburg Village officials, and the existing poles in various alleys are currently at places where they could be utilized to place the fiber optics safely and more cost efficiently.

“The biggest complication is crossing over the main roads, but it is doable, and we are using existing paths,” Yoder said, noting they looked up an agreement with American Electric Power from 2015 that allowed the county to access the AEP utility poles if needed for cases like this.

Phase one of the project would include the first half of the circle, which is actually less like a ring and more like a rectangle with various protruding edges. It would see the installation of above-ground fiber wires that would connect the Clinton Street office building, the prosecutor’s office, the courthouse, Holmes Soil & Water Conservation District and the Old Jail. The initial phase is estimated to cost $49,000.

Phase two would then create a redundant ring from the courthouse to the prosecutor’s office and the Clinton Street county building at a cost of $46,000.

Phase three would then see BluShift Wireless extend the ring west to Fire District No. 1 at a cost of $47,000, and phase four would then extend the fiber optics even further west to the fairgrounds at Harvest Ridge at a cost of $49,000.

While providing the immediate county buildings with higher and more efficient speed, Yoder said this set-up also would allow the expansion of the fibers in other directions, which would then allow other businesses to tie into it, thus creating a revenue source.

Anderson said the initial cable was dated 2003, when it was initially installed, noting the capacity will go from 100 meg capacity on the current fiber to 1,000 meg capacity on the new fiber.

Yoder said the phase-three project will be a bit trickier because some of the suggested poles are already heavily in use. In addition, the move to the fairgrounds would allow emergency access for the sheriff’s department from the fairgrounds for larger events, as well as create opportunity to build in video surveillance and improve audio and video capabilities.

Commissioner Rob Ault said they also have talked about setting up optics that would extend along the Holmes County Rails-to-Trails and connect the sheriff’s office, Holmes County Home, Holmes County Board of Developmental Disabilities and possibly the Holmes County Dog Warden office. In addition, Yoder said they are looking into moving up along state Route 83 north of the village.

“There are already a couple of businesses that are interested in tying into it,” Yoder said. “That would help lower the cost. There is plenty of extra capacity if a business would require high-capacity internet, and we could set up a lease agreement to accommodate them.”

“I think once it is in, there would be a lot of businesses that would have interest in tying into it,” Ault said.

The commissioners then made a motion to move forward with phase one and two of the project, with a starting date later this summer. They will discuss pursuing the latter two phases at a later date.

“You’ve got to start somewhere, and to me, this is the way to start,” Ault said.