The agreement states that M2 Connections, a division of Anniston-based JKM Consulting, can, for a period of 10 years, install such equipment along public rights of way. The company will use that infrastructure to sell broadband Internet connectivity to local businesses and schools, and the city is to receive five percent of gross revenue from the venture.
JKM Consulting received $6.2 million from the federal government under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to install fiber optic cables in rural eastern Alabama. The company in 2013 completed the installation of fiber optic cables from Pleasant Valley to Wedowee, said Steve Moses, vice president of M2 Connections, speaking by phone Monday.
Moses said the company isn’t certain how much money Jacksonville will receive from the venture.
“We haven't run the numbers yet,” Moses said, but he doesn’t think it will be a large amount of revenue for the city. M2 Connections currently has few customers in the city, he said, but they include Jacksonville State University and several medical clinics. The company services businesses, schools and nonprofits.
M2 Connections began selling connectivity to those Jacksonville businesses in 2014, Moses said, but did so by placing equipment along state rights of way. The project has moved past that, and is now in need of using municipal rights of way, he said.
In another matter of connectivity, the council approved work that would create an access point onto the Chief Ladiga Trail from Reynolds Avenue.
The approximately $3,500 project calls for clearing 100 feet from Reynolds Street, at the intersection of Burke Avenue, to the trail, and pouring a concrete bike path.
The council also discussed a change to city code that would allow property owners to do their own electrical work on rental properties without having a professional license, as state codes already allow.
Such a property owner, who does not have a masters electrical license, recently requested to do their own electrical work, but the city’s code doesn’t allow that, said Mark Williams, Jacksonville’s building inspector. City code already allowed for homeowners to do such work without a license, he said.
Williams said the proposed ordinance would be in line with existing state codes which allow property owners “or someone who may own a 100-unit apartment complex” to do their own electrical work. The ordinance would also allow the employees of property owners to complete that work without a license, he said.
Plans must be furnished to the city for any planned electrical work, and once completed, the work must be inspected by the city, Williams said. The ordinance simply exempts owners and their employees from having to have a masters electrical license to do the work, Williams said.
Several council members expressed concern over such a change, saying having untrained people do electrical work could be dangerous. The matter could come up for a vote at the next council meeting on May 21.
Speaking during the visitor comment period of Monday’s meeting, Jacksonville resident and former council member George Areno expressed concern over the way in which he said the city has recently proposed annexation of county land.
Areno explained that he believes some county residents who lived in the areas proposed for annexation were not made clear of the plans early on, and were not kept in the loop as they developed.
“I think you ought to go back and look at this, and think about how it should have went,” Areno said.
©2015 The Anniston Star (Anniston, Ala.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC
