The TCLP board this week agreed to ask the City Commission for an interfund loan of up to $1 million from the city’s Economic Development Fund to help finance the final stages of its now-estimated $14 million fiber and smart grid project.
The loan would include a 10-year repayment window with interest rates based on the 10-year U.S. Treasury rate, with no penalty for early repayment. City commissioners are expected to review the request at their Oct. 20 meeting.
Utility officials said they’re modifying the financing set-up for the fiber system as costs for the project have dropped significantly from the original estimates made three years ago. Consultants in 2023 estimated some $28 million was needed for project construction, contingencies and for onboarding new fiber customers.
Updated cost projections in 2025 are about $14 million after the utility renegotiated some of its existing contracts and sought competitive bids for the remaining work, TCLP Executive Director Brandie Ekren said.
The local funding would allow the utility to forego tapping into a $14.7 million loan authorized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture three years ago to assist the project.
It will extend high-speed fiber-based internet and other telecommunications services to TCLP residential and business customers, and expand its smart grid technology to enable the utility to communicate real-time power consumption, generation and other data to optimize energy use across its grid.
TCLP Chief Financial Officer Karla Myers-Beman told the board that using USDA loan funds “presents compliance and administrative challenges.”
Utilizing the city’s interfund loan would eliminate that work, and keep interest costs for the financing within the community.
It also would align with the city’s goal of making strategic investments in public infrastructure, she said.
“We’re at a point where it’s just not worth it to pursue the USDA financing for that small a percentage of the project,” Ekren said.
The original financing plan included the USDA loan, plus $13.5 million in municipal bonding approved by the City Commission in June 2023.
The current funding mix includes the $13.5 million in municipal bonding, plus the proposal to tap the city’s interfund for a loan of up to $1 million.
Those figures don’t include exceeding a 10-percent contingency allowance included in current estimates, or added costs if more TCLP customers than expected sign up for the fiber service which could require more funding for the work.
About $3.5 million has been spent on the fiber/smart grid project so far, Ekren said.
Residents in the Slabtown neighborhood west of Division Street recently received notice in August on the expansion of the fiber network into their area, and crews are working in the neighborhood this week.
Ekren said crews are also working in other parts of the city depending on where they have permits to do the installation work.
The utility is on schedule to complete its citywide rollout of the fiber network by spring 2026, but has a “stretch goal” of finishing the work yet this fall, she said.
“This is a rapid deployment,” Ekren said.
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