Hurley Board to Consider Deal for Fiber-Optic Internet
Hurley Board to Consider Deal for Fiber-Optic Internet
The Hurley Town Board agreed Tuesday evening to review an agreement with Archtop Fiber, a local high-speed internet and phone provider. The partnership through ConnectALL NY, a state initiative to provide affordable digital access, would allow Archtop Fiber to build connection lines across the town.
“It's designed to bring fiber-optic and connect underserved audiences,” said Town Supervisor Melinda McKnight.
In the past few months, Ulster-based Archtop has taken the Hudson Valley by storm with proposals of multi-gigabit fiber-optic internet and phone services for under-reached areas. The towns of Ulster and Woodstock have already signed agreements allowing Archtop to build network lines there. At Tuesday evening’s Hurley Town Board workshop meeting, Ulster County Legislature candidate Jeff Collins lauded Woodstock’s partnership, which was finalized late last month.
“We’ve been horribly undeserved for a long time in areas of our town,” said Collins of Woodstock. “I’m assuming Hurley has the same thing.”
McKnight and several board members agreed that internet and phone services in the more rural areas of Hurley have been lacking. According to McKnight, Archtop’s proposal to Hurley closely matches its agreement with Woodstock, which would provide internet and phone coverage for over 6,200 potential locations across the town. Last October, Archtop’s presentation to the Ulster Town Board showed the potential for coverage for 120,000 connections across Ulster, Dutchess, Columbia and Greene counties.
Transmitting information through pulses of infrared light, fiber-optic connections are faster than those going through copper or hybrid wiring and can handle much more data. As a result, it’s more complex and often more expensive to install. However, Archtop has stated that it has about $350 million in private funding to use towards running fiber optic lines on existing infrastructure throughout the Hudson Valley. In addition, it has suggested local towns use federal funding, like the ConnectALL NY initiative, to support the networking project.
The board seemed to be in favor of the Archtop agreement and decided to review it for further consideration at the next board meeting.
New Highway Dept. Building
At the same meeting, Supervisor McKnight addressed finding a new location for the town’s highway department. In January, Town Code Enforcement Officer Tom Tyrone declared the department’s building at 1035 Dug Hill Road unsafe due to some structural integrity, mold and high levels of noxious gas. A report from Lockwood Architecture recommended the building’s demolition.
McKnight suggested asking the town planner to conduct a feasibility study on town-owned land to find a suitable location for new building. The rest of the board agreed.
In Other Hurley News……
(The Kingston Wire is offereng Hurley news coverage for free for 3 months - you must however register on the Kingston Wire website to access.)
