Introduction

The Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation (hereinafter, the “CDC”) requests proposals from qualified parties (individuals or organization) for the project of Archuleta County Broadband Services Plan Coordination (hereinafter, the “Coordinator”). The Coordinator will provide analysis of broadband services and future expansion plans and will create a financial model for plan development (hereinafter, the “Plan”) for the Town of Pagosa Springs (hereinafter, the “Town”) and Archuleta County (hereinafter, the “County”), Colorado.

The CDC endeavors to assist the Town and County in providing affordable, reliable, universal high-speed broadband Internet service to all County citizens, businesses and visitors. The Plan developed by the Coordinator includes completion of identification of current broadband assets (of work has already begun in 2017), analysis of coverage areas and gaps based upon current FCC broadband standards guidance, organization of broadband collaboration partners (incumbent providers including telephone and cable operators, wireless technology providers, and other partners such as Colorado Department of Transportation and La Plata Electric Association). The Plan also includes development of an implementation proposal that coordinates public and private efforts, prioritizes improvement and expansion services, researches multiple funding sources and options for initial implementation and future expansion, and creates documentation such as identification of grant , status reports and public information charts to monitor progress and demonstrate success.

Infrastructure

The Town and County are willing to grant, when possible, the Coordinator with access to infrastructure assets and services owned or controlled by the entities. This access includes:

Access to GIS data, street maps, maps of terrain, GPS coordinates and locating services through the Archuleta County GIS Department.
Research conducted in 2017 and 2018 by the CDC’s Broadband Work Group identifying gaps in broadband service coverage and resources available to fill in those gaps.

Scope of Work

A decision on the project provider will be made on July 11, 2018 and the winning contractor notified by July 13. The project will be executed from date of notification and completed by September 30, 2018.

The Coordinator shall organize, oversee and provide the following:

Assessment

Identify and evaluate the gaps in service coverage to create a blueprint to fill and prioritize gaps using the most cost-effective deployment methodologies. This identification process includes assessing where the current and possible service providers will be best utilized.
Attend local, regional or statewide meetings as necessary to acquire information or represent the community on strategies to improve community broadband efforts for Archuleta County.
Work with public and private entities to ascertain and coordinate future broadband development plans.
Identify any unserved areas in Archuleta County and prioritize.

Planning

Assemble implementation options for the gap areas.
Research project costs related to the various gap areas
Prioritize projects and needs based on associated project costs derived from research.
Research funding sources for projects; i.e., United States Department of Agriculture, Colorado Department of Local Affairs, Energy & Mineral Assistance Fund grants, local and regional banks and economic development entities, health care and educational sources, and other communication providers to develop possible grant requests.
Collect data to establish a baseline and continue data collection during implementation to measure progress and success.
Work with local government agencies, community anchor institutions, and local and regional economic develop institutions to develop and submit grant applications.
Develop salient project plan for implementation phase of project including partners, responsibilities, budget and prioritization plan.

Project Coordinator Skill Set

To qualify for the position of Archuleta County Broadband Services Plan Coordination, the preferred attributes of the applicant needs familiarity of broadband networks, including terminology, funding sources, contract management and compliance. The applicant should provide evidence of previous experience with similar projects, display examples of successful project implementation of former similar projects, and provide knowledge and examples of implementation tactics for this project. The applicant will be expected to provide regularly scheduled progress reports to the CDC to ensure project progression. The applicant should provide a cost for the project. The cost can be submitted as a bid for the project in whole, a monthly cost, or an hourly breakout. Include in bid what costs are NOT included; i.e., travel, meals, etc.

Correspondence

Please email resumes and project experience to:

Mary Jo Coulehan, CDC Administrator

admin@pagosaspringscdc.com

http://www.pagosaspringscdc.org/broadband/

Resumes are due at COB Friday, June 29, 2018

Request for Proposal Archuleta County Broadband Services Plan Coordinator