October 19, 2023 Digital Access Task Force Recording
10:57PM Oct 19, 2023
Speakers:
Steve Peters
Cindy Hogan
Nicole Umayam
Mark Goldstein
Karen Ziegler
Vaughn Croft
Heather Floyd
Candace Hamana
Barney McCabe
Jennifer Toothacker
Mark Haley
EJ John
Keywords:
work
arizona
broadband
tribes
tribal
ntia
state
tribal communities
bead
list
making
karen
meeting
permitting
initial proposal
steve
today
important
nicole
program
Okay, good morning, everybody. Glad to see you this morning.
So, welcome, everybody. So I want to start quickly with some brief introductions of some new people who have joined us today and then get into the updates from the Arizona broadband office. Those folks need to take off fairly soon. So I did want to again, thank Valley elecom Group. They are a new sponsor for us, and we appreciate their participation. And let's see, so could we have new this morning, Mark? Okay. Well, you want to introduce yourself?
Sure. My name is Mark Haley. As Steve alluded, we've known each other for well over 20 years. I'm presently the director of Project Management, for LInc Technologies. We're based out of Las Vegas, and we provide a to z testing Technical Services, and solutions and staffing. So, personal level, I've been involved with the state, the local, state and government, environment and IT director at different locations here in the state of Arizona, and have deployed technology throughout the United States and internationally as well. So wherever we connect with Steve has great opportunity to kind of reconnect and do some good things for our state. So pleasure to be here and attend with you guys. It's
Great. Thanks, Mark. Who else do we have new this morning?
I'm Arthur McCabe. Actually, I go by Barney, just in case that comes up as confusion. The Executive Director of the Institute for Computation and Data Enabled Insight at the University of Arizona, the new institute we created when I gave came back here about a year and a half ago, formerly from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. And before that, from the University of New Mexico. And before that, actually my undergraduate degree from Arizona.
Great. Thank you for being here today. I know your compadre couldn't be here today. I spent a good good deal of time with him yesterday.
Yeah, Ash. Yeah, that's good. Thank you.
He's he's been really awesome. introduced him to a whole bunch of folks. He was very helpful. Excellent. Anybody else new today? I think that's it. Oh, Heather. Good. I'm glad to see your online. So I missed you last week. But I did really appreciate that you stepped up to be a sponsor for us. And so thank you very much.
You're welcome. It's such a resource that your meetings bring that I'm glad I'm able to support it so they can continue.
Sounds good. Thank you very much. Okay, let's jump into our . As I said, the folks on the broadband office have to take off. So Karen, do you want to you want to kind of kick off please?
Yes, Steve. I'm looking at the participants. I don't see my team on so I don't know if they got pulled away this morning. Did you speak with Candice or
not Perla but I did talk with? Well, I didn't talk directly with with Candice. But we did text and she said she was going to be here this morning.
Okay. Let me text and just see where she's at.
Why don't Karen and while you're doing that, why don't we go on to Nicole. Nicole. Quick update.
Sure thing. Good morning, everybody. Hi to those that I haven't met yet. I am the federal program officer. for Arizona. With NTIA. It's the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. That means that I am the grant administrator for all of the federal broadband and digital equity programs coming into Arizona. I do a lot of stakeholder engagement as well and trying to make information widely available to all of our stakeholders and serving as in conduit between the federal government, state government and everybody interested in internet for all in Arizona. I also live in Phoenix and work and enjoy being part of the community here in Arizona. I just wanted to highlight today I know we're gonna get some updates from the broadband office but I wanted to highlight a couple of upcoming events that may be of interest to this group. The first is on October 30. Let's see at 2pm. Eastern time, I think that's going to be noon, over here in Arizona. And NTIA is cohosting a webinar with the Federal Highway Workers Association on broadband deployments in state, DOT rights of way. So this is some pretty timely information about what that coordination looks like and some best practices around permitting. I have asked if there's any special consideration for rights of way on tribal land, I know that comes up with some stakeholders, but I'm not sure. So I'll share that link in the chat. I've also next week on Thursday, October 26. I'm hosting two information sessions around the BEAD initial proposal. So that this is a key document that the state is required to put together and receive public comments on. And it's the nuts and bolts, the meat and potatoes, whatever, whatever metaphor you want to use of how the state of Arizona is going to be using and making available, the $993 million in funding for broadband deployment. So this is a really key document. And my goal for these two information sessions is to give stakeholders an understanding of what the federal requirements are that Arizona is currently drafting. So that you're able to participate in the public comment period, and that you're informed about the processes along the way can be this is a years long program that can get easy to be a little bit lost in where we are, especially as you're going to be seen the state's proposal of what they want it to do before they actually implement it. So it's a pretty critical time for that information. So the first one is going to be just general on the BEAD initial proposals. So come prepared with your questions. I'll give a little bit of an overview and we can do a little bit of a stump the chump with any any deployment or subgrantee questions that you have, we can we can have some discussions there, as well as showing where you're able to provide public comment on the state's plan.
Excuse me just a second, Nicole. So I did include the announcement of that workshop, in my recent email announcement about the meeting, and all the things that are coming up. So
I see that here. It looks like you're, you know, this is under Candice. And under the broadband.
I'm sorry, that shouldn't be your correct.
Yeah, but we do. You know, we do coordinate on all these projects. And of course, this is a information for all of Arizona's broadband stakeholders. So the bead initial proposal, as you know, the BT program is essentially a a very large formula grants to states and territories for broadband deployments. So this funding doesn't, isn't available directly to tribes to apply to the federal government. For for tribes that are interested in applying as for deployment on those lands, they have to apply through the state. And there was a number of considerations for tribal entities and tribal governments throughout this process. So I'm hosting an additional information session for tribal communities and stakeholders on what to look out for specifically in the initial proposal. So that one is going to be the morning on the 26th. And then the general one will be on in the afternoon. Next week or a week from today. We are going to record it and it will be up on the NTA YouTube page. It made also get added to the ACS YouTube page, I'm not sure
where we will get it added to our email announcements and so forth, also in the call. So like I said, I have sent out the notice of those meetings with the times. I think I have the link in there also for those meetings. So I really encourage you all to attend those meetings. I think they're very important to get update, because I believe they closed the public closing time. Correct me Nicole or Karen is November 1.
Excuse me for volume one,
or volume one. Okay, I'm Nicole. Anything else?
Um, that's it for this week. I am also going to have to jump early. But
thanks for being here this morning. So I see that Candace has joined us. Good morning. Good morning, Candace.
Hi, good morning. Can you be able to see me now? How are you?
Oh, there you are.
Give me just a second. I think I got a dirty camera lens. Let me clean that real quick. Okay.
Well, why she's doing that to get just a couple other updates. The coals update was great. It's a good segue for what we're doing at ACA with the Excuse me, could
you introduce yourself, please?
Yes, I'm sorry. Yeah, my name is Karen Ziggler. I'm a consultant with ACA on their broadband efforts. So like I said, ACA is working on the initial proposal that Nicole's spoke about. There's two volumes, Volume One and Volume Two, Volume One is already posted and open for public comment. That public comment closes, I think November 2, and we are up to our eyeballs in Volume Two right now, which is a much larger report and planning document. And it's going to identify the sub recipient selection process, that document is going to be posted for public comment right after we pull down volume one, so probably that first week of November, that will also be open for 30 days, and then the public comment, and then submit that final report to NTIA by December Well, the due dates December 27, but our target date is like December 14. So it would be really helpful for everyone to attend the whole session, because then you'll be prepared to review the documents and then you know, know what to expect. And you know how to respond appropriately, you know, to the public comment period. The digital equity plan is another document and planning document that we're working on. We have this is the meeting that we're going to I'll have to jump because we have a planning session on that document as well. The goal is to have that document open for public comment December 11. Again, that will be a 30 day comment period. So really looking for active participation from this group. And you know, all of our stakeholders on how Arizona and ACA are going to work for digital equity and inclusion over the next you know, 5-10 years. The last thing I wanted to update you on is the apdg program. That is the 100 million dollars that ACA awarded last year, all the contracts for the sub recipients have been absolutely executed. So projects are starting. Some of the folks that are in, you know, the government, local government entities will probably start seeing contacts from these ISPs looking for permitting, you know, processes and like so the webinar that Nicole was talking about maybe a very useful webinar for some folks to attend. And I think that is about it. And then Candice is going to talk specifically about the tribal engagement. So I will turn that over to her.
Before we before we jump to that just quickly. So Jen, if I can put you on. On the spot here, Jen Toothacker with the city of Tucson, and she was asking about updating the Anchor Institution list do you want to ask real quickly?
Sure, I'm not sure if you all can see me. I can't see you. Oh, great. So yes, we are currently working on our city of Tucson response. I am Jen Toothacker, I work for City of Tucson and the city manager's office. I'm helping our IT department and our CIO Chris Mazarella. We've been in contact also with Michelle Simon with Pima County. And so I reached out to Steve yesterday because it does appear like the challenge process maybe is one of the best places that we can focus our energies on commenting on as well as the appendices to volume one, which include the list of unserved underserved in the list of community anchor institutions, challenging to review the unserved and underserved list but then also, the community anchor institutions list is what we we're really honing in on making sure that we see that the different agencies and entities that would qualify are listed. Our interest is to, we recognize that the list has already been sort of sorted by location. But we wanted to make sure that any entities we're aware of come back up to you all, through comments to make sure that you can do another analysis, perhaps against those fiber lines that you do have in your possession. Because that's the only way we can figure out how to ensure that our community anchor institutions are there. Does that seem like a reasonable approach to you?
Yeah, Jennifer, absolutely. What we said was in when we posted Volume One, we did the first pass of compiling that community anchor institution list with all of the available data that we had, knowing that there were some inaccuracies and, you know, some omissions, you know, in that list. So that's part of the process of the public comment period. So if you have entities that, you know, are missing, or that are incorrect, absolutely submit that through the public comment, you know, Portal, on the ACA website, and we will, the the volume one that's posted now is a draft, it needs to go through a whole review process and an approval process by NTIA. So we have a long way to go before that document is finalized.
So So Karen, I think part of what Jen was asking was, where that list came from, and whether the input so I know the city of Tucson has some things. And actually, I'll introduce him if he's still online, Jim Craig with Pima College, about whether people had actually submitted that information or whether you got it from other sources.
It came from multiple sources, it came from national sources, I believe some of it came from NTIA, it came from folks like Mark Goldstein that had lists that submitted it, it came from, you know, different stakeholders. So it was a variety, it was a massive amount of data that was submitted. And Crystal, I don't know if she's on, she spent a lot of time, you know, like scrubbing that list working with our other contractor to put that together.
So do you have a question or comment?
Yes, please. Um, so Karen, will the the final proposal be released for public comment as well? So once, if we get our comments now and we and things get added to the list, Will there still be an opportunity at the at the final review, public review?
So there is no requirement for a public comment period after the final submission, NTIA will do a review and I see Nicole has her hand up. And so I think I'll let her you know, address that but there's there's no plan to release it again for public comment. Okay.
Thank you. So before I'm sorry,
Nicole comment?
Yeah, just wanted to provide a little bit of clarification around the community anchor institution list. So there's, it seems like there's a couple things going on one the broadband office and the state they they certainly are interested in having a data layer that captures every anchor institution possible for a number of purposes. However, for the beat initial proposal, and what states are required to do is to have a a shortlist if you will have proposed a committee anchor institutions that they would like to make eligible for bead funding for broadband service. So this is a short list of anchor institutions that facilitate the use of broadband and need service at a minimum of one gig symmetrical. So this is not every, you know, if your community center is not on the list, and it already has a gig service, or its that is coming. That doesn't need to be on this bead, initial proposal anchor list. So just because it's absent there doesn't mean that it's an ignored location altogether. It just means that that individual location is not going to be part of a project area for bead deployment. That makes sense. So just just needed service area service locations.
Thank you. So while we're talking about anchors institutions. Jim Craig, I see you're online. Finally got you to join us. And this This discussion is particularly relevant for, for Pima I know that some of the Pima locations. I think there was a four campuses, your main main office, and I'm not sure what other locations were included in the in the list. But do you want to introduce yourself first?
Oh, yeah. Thank you, Steve. I'm Jim Craig. I'm the Dean of Business Information Technology and hospitality leadership for Pima Community College. And like Steve said, we have five locations, five campuses that will be heavily impacted by this tremendously important work. I'm excited to be part of it into to hear more about it. So thank you. Great.
Thank you, Jim. Appreciate it. Bob Jacobson, you need to mute yourself on mute you.
Steve, this was mark of something
for once once I can put my mark on me. Yeah. Fine. Up here and mute him. Okay, go ahead, Mark.
Nicole, you're posting about the eight out right away. webinar. The team's link did not come through in that posting. And secondly, you list the time is two to 430. Et. I'm assuming you don't mean eastern time when you say E T.
That one is facilitated by NJ and the Federal
Highway that would be 11 to 130. Arizona time?
Yep. I'm sorry. I didn't change that. That time to local time. So I think
the show it is 11 o'clock. Arizona time.
2pm. Eastern time. Yes. Yeah.
That's fine. But
let me see back in a pain point. Yes. Let me see if I can grab that for Thank you. Thanks.
Again, I'll get that information out to everybody also. Okay, we need to move on because I know that Kansas is going to have to be out of here pretty soon. And Karen. So Candace want to introduce you and the tribal liaison with the broadband office. And we'd really like to get an update from you about what your job is, what your kinds of things you're working on. And maybe a little snapshot if you can, about kind of what's happening in Indian company, country, please.
Store Good morning. My name is Candice semana. I am Hopi and Navajo. I was brought on by the ACA as their tribal liaison in June 20, on June 26, of this year. So I've been sort of feeling like I've been playing a lot of catch up. There are 22 tribal nations here in Arizona. And geographically, they're spread out in all four directions from our state. So it's really been a task to try and make sure that we are engaging tribes on a personal level. So one to one meetings, visits to their tribal community. And in some instances, having them you know, come and have meetings, either here, facilitated by zoom or in person here at an at the ACA office. Definitely complementing the work that was done prior to my arrival, there's been several roundtable discussions. And I know that we're aiming to have sort of a monthly zoom conversation so that we're sharing the important milestones, deadlines and updates, as it pertains to the bead program. I believe that, you know, with the tribes, we are making them aware that, you know, when it comes to any bead projects on tribal land, that anyone wanting to do any work in terms of infrastructure, when we get to that point, we'll need to have the consent of the tribe. And so I think that's really important work. And a distinguishing factor with what we're doing is making sure that we're recognizing and respecting the tribal sovereignty of 22 nations. Of course, each tribal community is different. They've got different challenges. Some folks are, you know, are more remote than than other tribal communities. I mean, we're here in Phoenix and we're surrounded by, you know, Hilo River, the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian community and oxygen. But you know, you have more remote tribes that don't have access. And interestingly enough, sometimes can't participate via Zoom meeting because of the lack of reliable service and internet. So it's it's definitely been a challenge, but, but it's important that we're getting out and providing, you know, the different opportunities to engage with the broadband team in general. We were just in Flagstaff yesterday, the state broadband team, because we had a Northern Arizona tribal consultation session. So we were able to engage the tribal leadership.
atmosphere there, I think we lost you.
Well, hopefully she'll be She'll be back soon.
Oh, did she talk
together? Yep. Oh, no. downstream, she'll join up again, momentarily.
Oh, that's too bad. Yeah. Well, hopefully she'll be. She'll be back. Be back soon. So, Karen, just, again, a reminder for everybody about the governor's Interagency Council on this promo online today. I didn't see her.
I don't see her but I do see crystal.
So can you just again, remind people quickly and I believe that they're trying to work on scheduling some of the breakout groups. But can you just do a quickie about the broadband office? I mean, about the broadband Council?
Yeah, so the governor's office has established an interagency council on broadband and they've broken it down into some working groups and sent out an invitation for participation in those working groups. I think those are going directly to the governor's office or Birla, I know the council itself is going to be meeting quarterly but the workgroups I believe they're going to start to meet in the next few weeks. I don't have any real specifics on on where they are with the working groups, even if they're, if they're still accepting, you know, like, requests to participate. But I can find out from Perla.
And so I think I told folks that if they had any questions to contact Perla, it seems like key person from your organization, murky.
She's Karen, I think that I saw the email yesterday said today was the due date, October 19. We're supposed to give our schedules in to be part of that. Thank you.
Okay, so So Karen, hopefully that excuse me, that Candice may join us again. But do you have any sense of I know, you, you and I've talked many times. And you know, I'm a big fan of broadband action teams. Do you have any sense and EJ you're on line to I believe, Vijay, John, and maybe you have any comments about how the tribes are going about doing their planning for broadband? And have they developed action teams? Is there a plan to help them to do that? How does that fit with canvases roll? Any comments about that?
So I I'm not sure if they are calling them Robin action teams, but the work that Canvas and ACA are doing with tribes are very engaged and we're actually looking at a more like formalized process to help tribes with some strategic planning and putting together you know, some documents for both digital equity and infrastructure planning. So and I also know there's, I think it's healer River. Telecom is putting together like a tribal broadband Council Want to you know, facilitate bringing the voice of tribes together and holding, you know, like a similar activity, the way the governor's office is doing it for that bigger stakeholder group. So there's a lot of work going on with low tribes. It's just like Candice, just call it canvases back. So she, she's only been on board a couple of months. So she is, like, going like crazy, you know, trying to get all of the groundwork done. You know, but canvas, can you hear? Can you hear us again?
I can. Yes.
Okay. Back over to you.
Yeah, thank you. As I was saying, you know, yesterday, we met with the Northern Arizona tribal groups, were planning a similar listening and consultation session in southern Arizona, like I had explained, you know, we've got 22 tribal communities spread out in all four directions here in Arizona, so making sure that we're engaging them and that they have an opportunity to express some of their challenges, their gaps and or concerns is important. Definitely, some of the challenges that they have shared with us include, you know, are in relation to their, their, their data, sovereignty, it's important, and they want to make sure that, you know, they're asserting their rights in a way that, you know, as they share this data regarding household communities, in their tribal nation, that, you know, that information is not going to be used in a way that doesn't strictly just adhere to the guidelines of the NOFO for the proposals that we're anticipating. So doing a lot of work to make sure that we're building those relationships and having an open line of communications, I think is the most important thing at this phase, and then making sure that they are staying updated. You know, with the public, when we published volume one, making sure that they've got access to that link, and that they can provide public comments and encouraging them to do so is going to be really important. There's two different forks of work that I'm doing, you know, I've got the bead, the program for beat, but then we also have down the road, you know, the digital equity planning and program. So also drafting a digital equity plan that's just for tribes, is something that I just completed a couple of weeks ago. And now we're working with our consultants, to make sure that we incorporate those concepts and those thoughts and some of that framework into the overall state plan. So when there's not outreach and or engagement, definitely doing a lot of assisting the team with you know, drafting language, and applying some of the feedback that we're getting from these listening sessions and these roundtable discussions to make sure that a we're either addressing those concerns that they have shared, or making sure that, you know, we're adding it into the plan, so that we can, you know, tackle it together as a team to address some of those issues that they've identified, which include, you know, workforce development, technical assistance, and then also understanding, you know, the broader scope of the work with digital equity in terms of making sure that you know, we'll be bringing in different organizations and or working with coalition's I think, Karen spoke to the tribal broadband working group, and they've been, you know, a key stakeholder group for us to reach out to and have been very helpful in getting our information out to the different regions in tribal community here in Arizona. I will be speaking at the tribal diabetes health equity summit on November 2. And then again, we are working with the governor's office to plan a southern Arizona tribal roundtable discussion in the next few weeks. So we'll be sharing information about that. Of course, that is an invitation to our tribal leaders that are delegates and or tribal ISPs. So it's a Um, it's been a lot of work. I think that, you know, we have all the essential pieces of our team. So we've just been working very diligently to make sure that tribes are being communicated to and engaged and consulted through every phase of this important work.
Okay. Any, any questions for Candace? Okay, hearing none, Steve. Yeah, go ahead. And
I'm across from Karachi Coast Job Corps Center in Tucson, hey, Candace, I've done some work, I realized this is kind of my statements kind of outside of Arizona, but I'm not trying to take it that direction. But I've been out on reservations doing training. And I know you're working very hard to get this broadband service, you know, out and equitable throughout the tribal nation areas. But I was in the the hickory tribe in New Mexico, which is just a little bit to the east of Arizona there. And it's, it's pretty weak out there. It's just hoped that this movement is going to bring that that service up to a higher standard.
Yeah, I absolutely agree. I think that the work to bridge the digital divide in Indian country is going to have, you know, a very lasting impact. But it's important that that we do that, right. This is an opportunity, a historic opportunity with almost a billion dollars for the state to allocate across all the needs that are in rural Arizona, including tribal nations. And so I think it's important that they understand what's at stake here, you know, there, we have to have the data, we have to understand that, you know, the FCC maps are going to be, you know, the, where we're getting that data from, and where everything is tied to in terms of funding and understanding that, you know, there's a little bit of give and take. But if we can communicate that in a way that is respectful of their tribal sovereignty, and gives them enough information, well, not enough, but all the information as we have it, and as frequently as we can, so they feel like they're fully engaged in the process, then I feel like that's, that's going to build stronger relationships, not just now, and not just for bead funding. But once we have infrastructure in place, once we've, you know, achieve the goal that we're hoping to achieve in terms of connecting every home that's unserved or underserved in Arizona, you know, thinking about beyond that, you know, giving access to improving, you know, education, entrepreneurial opportunities, you know, business ventures for the tribe. And so really trying to paint a big picture for, you know, not just what's the immediate, but in terms of what, what's down the road, for tribal communities, if we can get closer to bridging this digital divide? And how it can have lasting impacts for generations of tribal communities for our tribal communities.
He was that fiber service as well as wireless service, or is it more one, one or the other? What's it look like?
I know that when we've talked about it, and we've got, you know, there's topographical issues, you've got a tribe that is at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, have a super high tribe. Each tribe is unique and has unique infrastructure challenges. The Hopi tribe, for example, is surrounded by the landmass of the Navajo Nation. So anything that they want to do, in terms of their infrastructure is going to require permitting and right of way from the Navajo Nation. And so there's a lot of different barriers to that permitting and licensing. And so for that reason, you know, you're we are going to have to look at, you know, fiber and or in some very remote places, you know, wireless services and satellite. So there's nothing is off the table. But, but right now, it's just important that we're getting the data that we need so that we know when it's time to start allocating those funds that every household has been counted, and that we've got the ability to, to start working towards how we can get kind of activity to those homes, also taking into effect that, you know, some tribal communities have received federal dollars from other programs. And so we cannot build on top of that. And so making sure that you know, that we're doing our due diligence to to understand what their existing program mechanisms are for broadband connectivity, and making sure that there's not going to be an overlap, because then that would be out of compliance. And so it's, it's a lot of work but, but again, we've got a great team. And, and I'm learning a lot and sharing as much as I can with tribal communities in as many ways as I can with them. So I think that's really important part of the work
that Candice This is more Kaylee, I just finished up doing a big consulting job with Shoshone medic up in Idaho. And they're in they did a full assessment of their IT infrastructure or organization. And they're a really unique and just a beautiful organization. But they had some challenges because of the remote locations. And they had issues with with weather, they had issues with power that issues with all ellos li LMS X RO, that the the ability to have connectivity with them when you're talking about infrastructure, I just want to pose a question and maybe plant the seed is that when you're when you're speaking them is that are we taking in consideration power and the power grid, but that makes sure we can actually get power to them consistently given weather conditions? And what have you. And then are we talking about Dr. and business continuity for these police organizations as well as we get connectivity to them. Because obviously, sometimes their locations may be in one part of the land, but they're where the community might be in a different part of the land, and their ability to communicate when things are happening within their environment. You know, I just want to kind of distill some of those things out there, because he just said the things that I ran to when when I was working with Shoshone Bannock tribe up in Idaho. And I get I've given them a full report need to work on moving forward. And a lot of it was infrastructure, exactly what you're referring to, I think it's awesome what you're doing. But please keep in mind somebody other challenges that provides that connectivity, right, the ability to have continuity and backup plans for non power, but secondary services and what happened to them, because as you indicated, there are so many they're in remote and rural locations, that creates a bit of more of a challenge and those who are in that metropolitan area. So kudos to you and the organization. I think it'd be great for the tribal nations within Arizona to kind of get that taken care of. But I just wanted to share that. Thanks, Mark.
I appreciate that. And, and I agree, wholeheartedly. The approach that we're taking from the Arizona commerce authority is that, you know, we understand that states are safe, excuse me, tribal communities know how best to serve their tribal communities. So the engagement with them has been, you know, the fact finding and identifying those gaps, but not taking the approach of we know what's best, it's more collaborative, it's more from a place of tell us about your community, tell us about your workforce issues, you know, there's always going to be you know, once you get the infrastructure in place, then there's, you know, some digital literacy issues that may arise and then you have concerns of, you know, cybersecurity, but but basically making sure that you're looking at it holistically. And and understanding that there are unique challenges. The when you're working on tribal lands as you had spoken to another one that I think we're working, that we're working through right now is understanding that, you know, in Arizona, and on tribal land, anytime you move Earth, soil, there's a potential that, you know, you're going to unearth something that could be an artifact or something that's culturally relevant to a tribal community. And so, you also have to think about, you know, federal guidelines in terms of NAGPRA and understanding that, you know, in some instances as you start to actually move Earth and lay down fiber, that you may have to bring in cultural resources from a tribal community. And in some instances, that could make things more costly. And it can also stop a project in its tracks, you know, depending on what you an earth and in those instances, so, there are a lot of factors and outlying situations that have to be taken into consideration. But I think just acknowledging that those issues exist is one way for us to make sure that we don't forget about those types of things. And that we're able to, you know, come up with hopefully something that would be more solution based. When we're doing this work on tribal land.
Yeah, one of the things we ran into was also buildings, right? They've been historical buildings, and they're not really structured to bring in, we had to run wireless to it. So, you know, there's a lot of challenges in the tribal nations. But I think that your efforts are, it's awesome. Because we great to be able to give them the thank you they need to in our digital world. So it's absolutely,
thank you.
Any other questions or comments for Kansas? Kansas, thank you for being here today. I think this is your first meeting with us. So I'm really glad that you can make it today. I know you're busy and running around all over the state. So I appreciate you being here this morning.
Thank you. I appreciate it. I had a little bit of technical challenges this morning. But I appreciate your patience and hanging with me. It was
about technology works when it works. And it doesn't when it does. So before so thank you, Candace. So before we move on, yeah, EJ, if I can put you on the spot? Do you have anything that you'd like to add? Or are any thoughts?
Um, good morning, everyone. This is EJ from the American Union Policy Institute. Um, I don't have any thoughts that I think you know, those are all important things to cover and things to consider when working with tribes. From our end, we're also kind of working on the same things. And just looking for ways that we can help from our Institute here at ASU. How we can provide information and research to just help out all these different projects and efforts to connect trips.
Okay. Thank you, EJ.
Steve, while we're on a tribal there is a national grant opportunity open, you've been including it in the newsletter. That's the NTIA A's telecom broadband capital project round two. So there is $980 million on the table. Applications are due January 23. of next year. And there is some preference for those that add partially successful applications in round one a $2 billion dollar round. It was called an equitable distribution. So if you actually applied in round one for a larger grant, and were declined and did get a half million dollar equitable distribution, there is some preference for your return to this program. So NTIA tribal billion dollars for tribal specific projects.
Thank you, Nicole, were you still online?
She signed off? Yeah.
Okay. All righty. Well, I think we do have some other things to talk about. But, Karen, if you end to Oh, Jenna, sorry, Jennifer.
Jennifer, make sure thank you.
Yeah, I just, it was a kind of late thoughts about an earlier statement about the other federal grants that have been awarded and that projects are probably going to be starting to roll out and need permitting. Is there a way to understand what is within the different jurisdictions? My particular interest is with anything in city of Tucson that may be coming through city of Tucson for permitting, so I can let others in our agency know.
Though, Jennifer, the apdg program that was awarded last year, there is one project in Pima County, which is at the southern part, I think they call it Sycamore and like the three points area, so I don't believe that that will impact the city of Tucson, and I'm sure you're aware of Pima County's direct award from NTIA for their middle mile project. So that's still very much in the beginning stages. So I don't foresee you know, any permitting happening anytime soon. What that great, thank you so much.
Anything else?
I am going to drop Steve.
Thank you Karen. As always, we appreciate you being here to participate with us. Kansas City still online and you're good to drop off to or maybe already have you here.
Yeah, I'm here I got another about another five minutes but ya know
You're very much for being here. It was great to meet you. And we look forward to continued dialogue with you.
Wonderful, thank you.
Bye now. Okay, moving on, newbie. You're online. You want to give us kind of update about what's happening with with Johannes Bala causa and the ACP project. He's still there. Oh, maybe she's no longer there. Okay. Cindy, you want to give us a quick update? What's happening?
Sure. I'm Cindy. I'm the chair of the Arizona Digital Inclusion Alliance Network. And we're having a meeting today, we're going to talk more about the community anchor Institute. Institution list and look at it and ask our members to see if they're on it and see if they'd like to be on it and then give that give feedback. I will also be speaking tomorrow at the Arizona Library Association Summit and joining Candace at the the tribal diabetes health equity Summit. That is on November 2. So if anyone would like to go to the meeting today, um, you can put your email in the in the chat and I will get you the invitation to that Arizona Digital Inclusion network meeting from 12 to one. Thank you.
Thanks, Sandy. Any questions for Cindy? So our library folks on here? I believe the library conference started today, if I'm not mistaken. That's correct. So all of our library folks are not here today. I know again, it's not here. Karina Jones with the Department of Education, I believe is still out on medical leave. And so we haven't we'll hopefully be hearing from her soon. So, Rory, I don't think you're online. I haven't seen you in a little while. So he's not available today. So anybody else have any announcements, anything that they want to share this morning before we end the meeting for today?
I'm more here two things. One is that we have jointly been announcing next Tuesday's sy Tech Summit an all day event at the Arizona Science Center. It turns out on a gold sponsor of the event and have 16 comp, complimentary attendance credits, I have posted that code and the link in the chat. I would prefer you didn't include that in the newsletter to 700 people or however many but for people on this call next Tuesday STEM Summit. Complimentary attendance, courtesy of me if you're so inclined, and the evening before is a free pre event reception. Also at the Science Center, both links are in the chat. So that's one thing. And secondly, Jerry Crowe, who's sometimes on this call, as President of the Phoenix chapter, the I triple E Computer Society, I did a two hour plus mega IoT Internet of Things presentation to the chapter last night I come in every year late in the year with something and though the presentation isn't streamable the deck is available 270 some odd slide IoT deck, deep dive on SlideShare. And you can download it or view it there. And that link is in the chat.
Okay, thank you Mark. Anything else for the good of the order? going once going twice. So those of you who have joined us in the past and know that after our formal meeting, we have kibitzing with colleagues, anybody who wants to stay online and just get share information or whatever. You're welcome to do so we will stop our our video and we'll see you next week. Thank you Well,
