Connie Gross
Lake Santeetlah – One local municipality’s council had intentions to hold an official town meeting Oct. 12 – but for the second time in recent memory, the whole council was not present.
Instead, residents of the Town of Lake Santeetlah discussed fiber-optic network lines, among other items they wanted to mention.
Council members present for the meeting were mayor Connie Gross and finance officer Tina Emerson. The members not present were vice mayor Ralph Mitchell, council member Diana Simon and council member Jim Hager.
Mitchell, 94, had COVID and was not able to attend; Simon and Hager were both absent for the Aug. 10 meeting as well. The Oct. 12 meeting was not called to order, so Gross made the space for a “town speech” for anyone who wishes to speak – a direct reflection of what took place in August. The agenda could not be used and no motions were made.
Dean Russell, director of fiber planning and operations for Zito Media, was present from Burnsville. He explained the options Zito was planning to take to improve the fiber-optic network that is already present in Lake Santeetlah. The project is funded by Zito, because the company are improving on work they previously did.
The first option is to improve the coaxial that starts in Robbinsville and runs above ground down to Yellow Creek Road; the alternative is to improve the fiber at each home in Lake Santeetlah. Russell said 80 percent of the homes of fiber optic above ground and 20 percent have underground.
Russell said that both options will provide a strong bandwidth, but the decision depends on what is most cost effective for Zito.
Zito will begin an evaluation after Dec. 1, which will take 90-120 days of mapping each home, the distance between each home, the length and amount of fiber, and cost of electronics. Once a decision is made, it will take a year to either improve the coaxial or the fiber at each home.
Gross later said she wants to improve the town website. She said they are working out a deal with Western Carolina University to have a student work freelance on creating the website.