(Okoboji)– The findings of the first phase of a study into the feasibility of the cities of Wahpeton, Orleans, Spirit Lake, Okoboji and Arnolds Park starting up a municipal telecommunications utility have come back much less favorable than expected.
The Opportunity Is Calling Committee met Thursday evening to review the findings. The study was conducted this past summer by a consultant of Black and Veitch. Doris Kelly of Black and Veitch presented the findings to local officials. She says the “take rate”, or the amount of people that would be willing to take service from the new utility, came back much lower than expected. Kelly blames a big lapse in time between the referendum authorizing the study and when the survey was actually conducted. Kelly says many people had forgotten about what the study was all about by the time they were contacted by surveyors.
Kelly says the fact the survey was conducted in the summer may have also skewed results in the cable television portion of the survey, since the vast majority of people watch very little or no television at all…especially in the lakes area.
The next step in the study process would be a market analysis at a cost of five thousand dollars. But Kelly strongly recommended the committee NOT proceed to that level for now. Instead, she said the committee should consider mounting another public education campaign and then do the initial survey over. That survey cost 15-thousand dollars. But Kelly said the cost could be reduced considerably by having someone like a university conduct it.
Committee members decided to report back to their respective city councils. They’ll reconvene at the next Opportunity Is Calling Committee meeting, set for 6:00 p.m. Monday, November 21st at the Okoboji City Hall.
