TORRINGTON – The Torrington City Council met for its first meeting of the month on Tuesday, May 4, and agreed to a new three-year agreement with Vyve Broadband in a 4-1 vote.
Jeremy Huhman, the Regional Director of Operations for Vyve Broadband spoke to the council requesting the three-year extension and said that faster speeds will be on the way to Torrington by mid 2022.
“We need to upgrade the infrastructure,” Huhman said. “That infrastructure needs to be updated not just to today’s standards, but also tomorrow’s standard.”
The standard of tomorrow is a 1.2 gigahertz system which is an upgrade over the current standard of today, which is 860 megahertz. By putting the 1.2 gigahertz system installed, Vyve will increase speeds up by 500 megahertz.
There was some hesitation initially by the council to approve the three-year agreement, but they eventually decided to add a yearly review clause to the agreement. It passed in a 4-1 vote with the one nay coming from councilman Ted Kinney.
Before approving the agreement, Kinney raised some of his concerns to Huhman and asked him why the council should approve them for a three-year agreement when there’s been continual issues with Vyve.
“We’ve asked for things to be fixed and it’s been a long, long, long time coming,” Kinney said. “We can all give you examples of things right now that need to be fixed and I guess I don’t understand asking for a multiyear agreement pushes us off to the side, when a single year holds you accountable.”
In response to Kinney, Huhman told him they normally ask for 10 to 15-year agreements, but he did not want to ask for that due to the issues the community has had with Vyve in the past. By asking for a three-year agreement, it allows Vyve to bring in resources to address the issues.
“Three years allows me to get the resources and the money in here to prove ourselves to you,” Huhman said. “It’s hard for us to justify a multimillion-dollar investment, which we want to make, but we need you to invest in us.”
Mayor Randy Adams also spoke about his experience with the WiFi offered by Vyve. He said he’s noticed a vast improvement on the service recently over what was offered in the past. He also spoke about his friends’ improved experiences with the television services offered by Vyve.
“I have friends who have your television service, and the high definition has definitely improved over what it was before,” Adams said. “That aspect has improved, there’s no doubt about it.”
Adams also reiterated the council has heard before that improvements will be made, but that Vyve has not always held up their end of the bargain. He said the council remains skeptical that all the promises will be met.
Before putting the three-year extension to a vote, Adams asked City Attorney James Eddington if the council could put in an annual review process into the contract agreement. Eddington said the council could put an annual review in place.
After Eddington said they could put in the annual review, the council voted on the three-year extension agreement. Councilman Richard Patterson moved to approve the three-year extension, which was seconded by Councilwoman Kate Steinbock.
During the meeting, the council also unanimously approved a liquor license for Deborah Alden, who will be opening up a shop on Main Street called Old Town Square. Her liquor license will only be used to sell high end liquor and wine that is mainly produced in the state of Wyoming.
The portion of her store that will sell liquor will be in a separate building inside the larger store to help better control the access to the area from minors. The council unanimously approved the request for her liquor license.
A special event permit for Goshen Economic Development was also unanimously approved for three separate days over the summer for the Third Thursday events. This year the events will be held on June 17, July 15 and Aug. 19.
The third readings on the ordinance regarding telecommunications franchises and relating to mobile home parks, subdivisions and trailer park districts. Both were passed unanimously.
The next Torrington City Council meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 18 at 7 p.m. and they will be going over the upcoming budget.
