RURAL NELSON MINUTES TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4TH, 2003 RURAL NELSON OFFICE Al Weed opened the meeting, welcoming the many people who attended, who then introduced themselves. He introduced Waldo Jacquith and Nathan Van Hooser, who came to speak on "Wireless Internet and Rural Economic Opportunities." Maureen Corum, Nelson County Tourism and Economic Development Director, was the moderator for a discussion of ways that wireless technology might be applied to a rural setting. Waldo described himself as a geek with his own wireless firm in Charlottesville. Nathan works for ARCOM and Robert is the founder of ARCOM. Al Weed talked about what had interested him initially in wireless internet - which was the possibility, some years ago, of using land near the fiber optic lines along Route 29 to open a modern industrial park that would involve home-based computer businesses. The county was looking for ways to improve job opportunities in Nelson. Waldo described the issues presented by wireless technology as social, political and financial. The largest is financial. One of the best ways to increase the tax base at least expense is to add to home-based industry. Connectivity has to be available to make this work. High-speed access is also key and wireless satisfies this requirement. Social issues that feed on connectivity mean that a community feeling can grow stronger. The digital divide between the technically competent and the technically ignorant can be avoided. The political aspect has to do with the internet making connectivity a very powerful tool. He added that the difficulty in Nelson might be the mountains, as wireless needs line of sight. It will be necessary to interface with the phone companies, which opens up the issue of monopolies and high charges over which you have no control. If you can get a tower close to your community you can get wireless, but the equipment for a tower is very expensive. The tower can get you as far as Charlottesville, where cheaper service can be picked up. Lovingston is in the toughest spot in the county in terms of mountain surroundings. Satellite access is cumbersome because of the latency (periods of delay) issue. Towers also open up issues of aesthetics. The issue of the potential for free riders to pay little and get wireless from their neighbor was discussed. The presenters argued that that could be guarded against, especially in large areas. It is more of a problem in small areas. Mesh technologies are cutting edge, but they can work in areas with huge density, like Northern Virginia. There are less than 20 towers in the county at the moment. Many of them are on telephone poles. There are only three major freestanding towers. If you have a tower, necessary questions to answer about wireless are: How are you going to get the T - 1 line, and who is going to pay for it? The cost of a tower is about half a million dollars, plus there is a small maintenance cost for the tower. They pointed out that getting people in a community to set up for wireless is less difficult than getting them to invest in keeping it running. Co-location is the answer to getting wireless internet access from cell towers for telephones; but it is expensive, given the telephone company monthly charges for co-location. Senator Allen is campaigning to get much wider use of bandwidth, and it was suggested that Nelson County sign up to be his poster child model county. It was pointed out that if you can get around the sight line issue you've got a huge head start. At this point, Al asked Maureen to tell us how the county can take advantage of what is currently available. She reported that the county has purchased its own web server, in order for the website to be a portal for all businesses, especially the tourism industry. Most tourists now make their reservations for holidays on line. Al gave the example of organic farming, and described how the website could facilitate getting produce directly to customers fresher and cheaper. The website would also be used for directions in case of severe weather, and for rain gauges and river gauges. Wintergreen is going to do a T - 1 line with a tower for their residents. In general, where public communities have invested in high-speed connection, commerce will catch up with what they offer and do it better. But a small community sometimes cannot attract the open market. There is a town in Kentucky that, through a cooperative, installed cable not for profit. All kinds of wonderful technologies exist without the means to make them viable. Fiber optics lines are currently running down Rte. 29, but they aren't available to Nelson county residents. After a short break Joyce gave the Treasurer's Report. Rural Nelson's book balance in the beginning of the year was $9174.39. Expenses from 1/1 to 2/3 were $3036.27. Part of this was in preparation for the dinner at D'Ambola's Restaurant. $3632.00 was deposited in the same period. Currently the book balance is $9770.12. In addition we are caretaking $2149.84 for Friends of the Rockfish River. There will be a Board of Supervisors public hearing on the Ag/Forestal Ordinance on Tuesday, February 11th at 7:30 p.m. Much progress has been made so far with the Dutch Creek initiative. The draft ordinance is on the Rural Nelson website (www.ruralnelson.org). A Work Session on the Zoning Ordinance will be held Wednesday, February 12th at 7:00 p.m. at the Courthouse. This will be both the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors. Mr. Cox will not be present, but the two entities will compile questions for him. Mike Tapager gave an update on the Lovingston Group progress. They have an upcoming meeting either the 19th or 20th (to be decided). There is a lot of energy in the group. Uri Levi reported on efforts to bring GIS mapping capacity to the county. The effort is to set up a GIS workstation to do volunteer digitalizing of the tax maps for use by the general citizenry. The Canaan Valley Institute is a potential partner in this project to set up a public access system. This kind of thing is usually done by larger entities, like local governments, but Canaan Valley is interested in this particularly because it is a community project. Anyone who would like to volunteer to work with this project would be appreciated. They would be picking up new skills if they do get involved. Fred Boger pointed out that Virginia would be releasing aerial photographs of the whole state in March, which should help the project. It will be a very powerful tool for many things, in particular watershed management. Ed Pearson brought a Pledge for Peace, which he offered to those interested in circulating it among their friends. Gail Troy pointed out that it is Lifelong Learning Week, and bumper stickers are available. Bill Reilly and Maureen Corum will begin an inventory of architecture in Nelson County. This is part of the architectural design project. The next Rural Nelson meeting will be March 5th at 6:00 p.m. and will be our Annual Meeting and Potluck Dinner at the Rockfish Valley Community Center. Bring a dish and invite a neighbor! Anyone interested in working on a spring fundraiser is asked to call Kim or Al. NOTE: FUTURE RURAL NELSON MEETINGS WILL BE ON THE FIRST WEDNESDAY OF EACH MONTH. Respectfully Submitted, Mary Buford Hitz Rural Nelson, Inc. P. O. Box 401 (622 Front Street) Lovingston, VA 22949 434.263.5000 Email: info@ruralnelson.org www.ruralnelson.org