(Okoboji)– A committee looking into the feasibility of establishing a municipally-owned and operated telecommunications utility in Spirit Lake, Arnolds Park, Okoboji, Orleans and Wahpeton held its first official meeting Thursday evening.
Pat McNorton, Spirit Lake’s representative on the Opportunity is Calling Committee, or OCC, was elected Chairman.
In addition to electing officers, the committee also adopted bylaws and reviewed the feasibility study process, along with a preliminary draft of a request for proposals to be sent to prospective engineering firms. McNorton says the goal is to finalize, approve and send out the RFP’s to interested engineering firms at the OCC’s next meeting February 19th. He says the firms will be given a couple of months to return the proposals, which the OCC will then review. After that, they’ll select a firm to conduct the study, which probably wouldn’t be completed until late this year. After that, depending on how the study comes back, individual cities will decide whether or not they want to proceed to the next phase, which would be to go out for bonds that would be needed to construct the system.
