"We are getting tremendous interest," said Riz Shah, an adviser with Alvarez & Marsal and Capital Projects LLP, the consultant for the project. The proposals are due by the end of January.
At that time, the consultants will compare the proposals and weed out those that do not meet Joplin's needs, said another adviser, Jack Schaller, vice president of Olsson, an engineering company in Joplin. He said the consultants have worked with city departments to determine the details of service that would best serve Joplin and connect residents to the Internet at the lowest cost.
The city will consider proposals in which Internet service providers would invest in partnerships to bring service here or structures in which the city contributes to the funding but not any proposals in which the city would be asked to pay all the costs, Schaller said.
The council was told that questions about the request for proposals are due from interested providers by the end of this week. Once the proposals are received and examined, interviews with those who submit them are to be conducted in late February or early March.
Mayor Pro Tem Keenan Cortez asked the consultants if it's a buyer's market right now in the industry. He said that it looks like Joplin is getting a generous response and might be in a good position in next six to nine months to obtain a good service at a reasonable cost. He was told the amount of interest would suggest that result.
Councilman Phil Stinnett asked the city manager if council members would have input before they are asked to approve a deal. He would like to have input before a final agreement.
City Manager Nick Edwards said if there is something that is not meeting community needs, the city staff can discuss that with the council.
Stinnett said the priority in the beginning of the project was to obtain Internet access for schoolchildren citywide. He does not want to see the broadband service get overloaded with special interest or business use so much the city cannot achieve the original purpose to provide reasonably priced access to residents and families.
In other business, a final report on the status of the Solid Waste Master Plan was given at the meeting.
Joplin residents could see some changes to trash and recycling services in the future if the city adopts the recommendations that are coming in the Solid Waste Master Plan.
Though a new trash and recycling contract is more than three years away, consultant Julie Davis with the firm of Burns and McDonnell said that a shift from voluntary curbside recycling to making curbside available to all residents will be a final recommendation.
That recommendation is intended to take more materials that can be recycled out of the trash that is dumped in landfills. She also said that to keep trash and recycling prices as low a possible, the report recommends that the city reduce bulky item frequency and limit quantities of bulky items that can be discarded.
Also recommended is that the city's recycling center be moved to a site where it can be operated next to tree limb and leaf disposal so that residents can use all of those services in one visit.
The cost to build a new recycling center with the combined sites would be $3.2 million, Davis said.
Late in the meeting, the council was conducting a public hearing that drew numerous residents in support of the operation of the CODA Concert House at 2120 E. 24th St., where house concerts are presented. The council was to determine whether a special-use permit would be issued for continued use of the property as a concert house and whether any special conditions would be imposed because some people testified at a previous meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission that there was noise and traffic issues with the site in a residential neighborhood.
A number of people, including neighbors, said that none of those nuisances have resulted with the concert house.
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