February 2021 TCCOG Report

Monthly Report

Tompkins County Council of Governments

February 10, 2021

by Councilperson Robert Lynch, Enfield TCCOG Representative

The Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG) has not met since our January Regular Town Board meeting.  We meet again February 25th.

Since our last meeting, however, TCCOG leadership has firmed up plans for that intermunicipal Broadband Committee to study broadband infrastructure development and expansion of affordable, high-quality Internet service to Tompkins County’s rural areas, including Enfield. 

Our Enfield Town Board, you’ll recall, provided a $5,000 investment last October to join in the County-led broadband initiative, to be undertaken by both the County Planning Department and outside professionals.  The newly-proposed TCCOG committee would coordinate with those professionals, mostly from a policy and a needs-based perspective.  The study, itself, would likely be completed by the end of this year.

As explained to TCCOG members last month in an email by Ithaca Town Supervisor Rod Howe, the Broadband Committee would be charged with four major tasks:

  1. Assisting Tompkins County in obtaining data, when necessary;
  2. Reviewing deliverables prepared for this study for completeness and accuracy;
  3. When appropriate, disseminating to their constituents the key findings of the study and processes being followed; and
  4. Learning about broadband technology to expand community understanding about the topic to better assess opportunities and constraints.

Our Town Board’s February 10th Agenda includes the appointment of an Enfield representative to this committee.  TCCOG wants each participating municipality to appoint one representative by February 22nd.  The member can be—and in my opinion, should be—a local resident, not necessarily a municipal official, with as Supervisor Howe recommends, “knowledge of and interest in this topic.”  Should I be selected, by default, as this committee’s initial member, I would hope our Town could later solicit candidates for this opportunity and then select the most suitable person as my successor so as to provide the committee maximum expertise and insight.

Robert Lynch, Councilperson

Enfield TCCOG Representative