To date, NITCO--the
administrator of the Town of Chesterton’s fiber optic network--has signed up
84 small businesses for fiber optic service. Of these, 67 already have had
the service installed, while the remaining 17 are waiting for their current
provider contracts to expire.
Now NITCO is
looking to expand the TV/Internet/voice service to a residential
neighborhood: namely, to the 42 homes on Catkin Circle in the Tamarack
subdivision.
So NITCO Senior
Vice President Tom Carroll reported at the Redevelopment Commission meeting
Monday evening.
Here’s the trick,
though: in order for the residential extension to make economic sense, half
of the 42 homes need to want fiber optic. “This particular area seems very
viable to us,” Carroll told the commission, partly because the fiber optic
line runs along 1100N immediately to the north. “But we’ll need 50 percent
of the homes to commit. We need that kind of take to make the project
viable.”
At the moment, four
homeowners are on board. Seventeen more need to step up. NITCO will be doing
some marketing in the neighborhood along with follow-up calls, Carroll
noted.
“I’m hoping that
the neighborhood will respond favorably,” Member Jeff Trout remarked. “It
would be good for the town.”
Call NITCO at (219)
996-2981.
Meanwhile, Town
Engineer Mark O’Dell reported that the town is close to submitting a permit
application to Amtrak for directional boring beneath its right-of-way in
Porter, to complete the fiber optic connection to Yost Elementary School.
Paperwork on the insurances needed--including $650 worth of professional
railroad liability insurance--is currently being prepared. Once the
application is submitted, O’Dell said, Amtrak should issue the permit within
30 days.
Carroll noted that
its contractor, CSU Inc., will be ready to break ground as soon as the
permit is received.