Council to Receive Burlington Telecom Update

The City Council will hear tonight from Burlington Telecom director Tim Nulty that the municipally owned fiber-optic network is adding 40 customers a week and has more than 1,100 subscribers who pay more than $104,000 a month to the department.

In a report provided as part of councilors' work packet, Nulty said BT revenues are lower than originally projected.

"The major cause of this delay was the Adelphia litigation and the make-ready delay in the New North End," he wrote. He was referring to efforts by Adelphia Communications and the New England Cable and Telecommunications Association, a trade group, to contest the city's application for the "certificate of public good" necessary for offering cable TV service, and to BT's need to negotiate with Adelphia, Verizon and the Burlington Electric Department to move wires on telephone poles to make room for BT's high-capacity wiring.

By Aug. 1, Nulty said in his report, BT will have wired the city's South End, New North End and Old North End, and by the end of 2007, BT will have about 3,000 subscribers. By the end of 2008, he said, BT believes it will have nearly 5,000 subscribers, and the city department will be bringing in an estimated $5.6 million annually—enough to put it in the black.

Other council business:

A resolution that endorses the development of hydroelectric power generation as a way of reducing fossil-fuel use urges the Legislature to work with state agencies to streamline the permitting process for such projects, and urges the state's congressional delegation to work on simplification of applicable federal regulations.

The council will take its first look at an ordinance sponsored by the Police Department that would raise the cost of a license for a neutered dog from $10 to $35 and for unneutered dogs from $14 to $45. The fee for having an impounded pet released would rise from $20 to $75, and the cost of impoundment would rise from $6 to $10 a day.

The council will be given copies of letters from several sports clubs endorsing a statement from the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs that opposes what it calls Mayor Bob Kiss' "determined campaign to advance a gun-control agenda." The federation said that "any discussion" of gun laws "should be conducted on the basis of a well-reasoned and objective review" of existing laws, rather than in the "impulsive and inconsistent" way it says Kiss has broached the subject. Kiss has said he believes a "discussion" of hand-gun rules in Burlington could lead to a safer city.

Contact John Briggs at 660-1863 or .