The City Council was told at a meeting Monday night that it is likely an agreement will be presented in the near future, said Troy Bolander, the city's planning director.
"We're still negotiating some details with a potential vendor," Bolander said, and he could not name the vendor for that reason. There are still some final details to work out before a final contract is presented for council approval, he said.
It was known before the COVID-19 pandemic that Joplin's Internet service options were spotty in some areas, "but we did not know the magnitude until then," Bolander said. The city's intent is to bring service citywide so that businesses can have access needed for their operations and residents can work or study from home or have an online doctor's appointment, he added.
Reliable Internet to all parts of the city is important not only to residents but to make government operations more efficient, have reliable service for economic development and jobs, serve health care needs and other purposes.
Earlier this year, a request for proposals was issued, and Joplin received nine responses. Those were evaluated and narrowed to five. The five were evaluated as to whether they were a good fit for Joplin, and due diligence was conducted that included reviewing audited financial statements of the companies. Three companies were then advanced.
Those three were examined during three rounds of reviews that included in-depth review of their responses in the request for proposals and to determine if they understood that what the city was seeking was a fiber-optic network connecting all residents. The consultants looked into build-out and construction abilities of the companies and whether they had detailed understanding of the needs of their clients and how good their performance is in customer service.
The final three companies were examined for affordability, resilience and recovery of their network capabilities after a disaster, and community engagement.
Resilience includes the ability to maximize infrastructure to government buildings, educational and health care facilities and to have replacement parts available here in case of a disaster or emergency.
Jack Schaller, a consultant from Olsson engineering, said the company that is being considered as the final candidate has a "robust plan" for disaster response. A large part of the proposed system would be fiber-optic line that is buried but some of it is aerial, which Schaller said gave the company the ability to to set up Wi-Fi service and have connectivity back in service in a day.
With final negotiations expected to wrap up soon, the group plans to submit a draft contract to the city attorney within 30 to 45 days, the council was told.
Bolander said a work session could be held with the council to go through a final contract before approval is proposed at a formal meeting.
In other business, City Manager Nick Edwards said he would bring back a proposal to move the Sunnyvale neighborhood stormwater drainage construction project back to its original schedule. The council had agreed with city staff to delay the project construction, but residents objected because of the severity of flooding in the neighborhood.
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