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The Hoover City Council on Monday night voted to spend $368,000 to extend a fiber-optic data connection to the Hoover Metropolitan Complex, but it took nearly two hours of discussion and debate, and a split 4-2 vote.
The city for several years has been working to strengthen its data system to improve continuity of service and the speed of communication between city facilities, and to provide better backup options in case a major city facility or data transmission line is destroyed or disrupted.
The City Council in 2017 and 2018 allocated more than $2 million for upgrades that included a fiber connection between Hoover City Hall and the Hoover Public Safety Center. MCI Metro/Verizon already is laying the conduit for that fiber-optic line now.
But the long-term data plan being pushed by city staff also includes fiber connections stretching westward along Alabama 150 and to the Hoover Metropolitan Complex and eastward along Valleydale Road.
Initial projections put the cost of a fiber-optic line to the Hoover Met Complex at $950,000, but the city now has an opportunity to put in such a line alongside a similar line being installed by Verizon, which would save the city an estimated $582,000, said Melinda Lopez, the city’s chief financial and information officer.
That will give the city a fiber-optic line all the way to Fire Station No. 6 in the Deer Valley area and to the Hoover Met Complex, Lopez said.
Lopez on Monday night strongly encouraged the council to also piggyback on Verizon’s plan to add a fiber-optic line along Valleydale Road, from U.S. 31 almost all the way to U.S. 280. That would cost the city another estimated $455,000, she said.
But the council held off a decision on the line along Valleydale Road after Councilman Mike Shaw, chairman of the council’s Technology Committee, objected to both fiber-optic lines.
'FERRARI' OPTION
Shaw, who is a chief technology officer for Mutual Savings Credit Union, said he can see less expensive and maybe more effective ways to accomplish the primary goals of the technology upgrade.
The city has a lot of needs, and the proposed technology upgrade is a “Ferrari” plan when the same goals could be accomplished with a “pickup” plan, Shaw said.
“We’re being asked to spend a heck of a lot of money,” Shaw said. He would like to see more effort put into finding less expensive alternatives, he said.
Also, if there is a need for a third major technology hub because of a concern about either City Hall or the Public Safety Center being destroyed by a tornado, the Hoover Met Complex probably is not the best location for a third hub because tornadoes tend to follow in a path along the Interstate 459 corridor, Shaw said. A site in eastern Hoover would make more sense, he said.
Lopez said if she could predict where tornadoes are going to go, she probably wouldn’t be in the position she is now.
She said if either City Hall or the Public Safety Center were destroyed or put out of service, the city already has land and parking available for temporary relocation of city services at the Hoover Met Complex.
Also, the city already has invested more than $85 million in that complex, including more than $300,000 in conduit and fiber within the complex, so it makes sense to have fiber-optic lines connecting to there as well, she said.
The SEC Baseball Tournament this year had a problem with its live radio broadcast that could have been avoided if fiber-optic lines had been in place, she added.
Also, stretching fiber-optic lines along Alabama 150 and Stadium Trace Parkway should reduce operational costs by more than $20,000 a year and allow the engineering department to tie more traffic lights into a central traffic control system, Lopez said.
City Administrator Allan Rice, using Shaw’s Ferrari analogy, said Hoover has always tried to deliver a “Ferrari” level of service. If he were to bring home a Ferrari for a pickup price, he would be the hero at his home, he said.
ONE-TIME OPPORTUNITY
Lopez said the opportunity to save money by piggybacking on Verizon’s conduit line is a one-time opportunity, and that company is ready to begin its work on the Alabama 150 line. “I certainly think we would be remiss if we did not take advantage of it,” she said.
Councilman John Greene said he trusts the advice of the city staff and believes the city needs to “strike while the iron is hot.”
Councilman Curt Posey said he still had questions he wanted answered. Councilman Casey Middlebrooks, in an effort to compromise, made a motion to go ahead with the fiber-optic line along Alabama 150 and Stadium Trace Parkway since timing is an issue and hold off on making a decision about expansion along Valleydale Road.
That motion was approved on a 4-2 vote, with Greene, Middlebrooks, Derrick Murphy and Posey voting in favor and Shaw and Council President Gene Smith voting against. Councilman John Lyda was absent.
