D. Project Description and Timeline - Infrastructure Matters

The Town of Chino Valley would like to hire a broadband planning consultant. This person will conduct

all analysis needed to be done in order to prepare the town for development ready funding

opportunities. This analysis will include, but not limited to, asset assessment, preliminary design,

coverage and site analysis, cost modeling, engineering, feasibility, customer demand and economic impact.

This project is needed in order for our town to attract business to town in order to create jobs, give

citizens access to high speed internet to work from home and or do homework, bring telemedicine to a largely retired and aging populace and to create economic growth and sustainability in our community.

The proposed project will address these needs because we will have the tools needed to prepare the

town for development ready funding opportunities.

Currently, the number of anchor institutions to be served is only two; Safeway and Clayton Homes. With

the broadband grant, we hope to increase that number. The number of business served is approximately 488, which does not include our neighbor to the North, Paulden, as they are not required to obtain a

business license. Based on a 15 minute drive-time demographics analysis, the total number of households served will be 9,251 and the total population served is 22,659.

Anticipated Economic Development Benefit:

The Town anticipates a very positive economic benefit should the Arizona Commerce Authority chose to

fund a broadband plan and later development project. Currently, tech companies and any company wanting to come to our town and deflated with the knowledge that there is a lack of high speed internet

to operate. Certainly they would chose to locate or relocate their business here due to the beautiful

rural environment, costs to operate, and overall better quality of life. There is an inability for citizens to

work from home, due to the lack of high-speed internet. This is very impactful for small business

owners, parents who have small children and need to work from home and to students who have

homework they need to due on a computer. These students are the future workforce and it inhibits

them from taking college classes online and studying from a computer. I have witnessed students

parked in the library parking lot to use high speed internet.

Chino Valley is severely underemployed. Currently, 57.5% of the population have post-high school

education; of that, 26% have an AA or better. The top 5 employment sectors in the area require a high

school education at most. Employers in these sectors pay low wages: Per capita income in this rural

region is 37% below the national median Of those employed full time, year round

in the past 12 months, only 27% had earnings from those jobs in the next year; 50% had no earnings and

23% had earnings from less than full time work. With that being said, Yavapai College has the capacity to

design and implement large scale job training programs to "retool" the skills of the under and

unemployed population. The ability to offer classes from home, via high speed internet, enhances the

towns' economic competitiveness by providing a more educated workforce and strengthens business

retention activities in this rural area.

Although more and more families are moving to town (we are the most affordable community in the

Quad-Cities), the average age in Chino Valley is 56 years old. With that being said, we have a growing

population and severely are lacking in healthcare. The nearest hospital is 30 minutes away. Also, we lack

pediatrics, women's clinics, and all of the practical medical practices that should be afforded to any

community. With broadband capability, telemedicine would be a viable alternative for non-life

threatening medical attention and doctors would be more inclined to locate or relocate their practice

here.

Overall, if the Town had high-speed internet capability we would grow commerce and have the ability to

sustain ourselves.

The intended uses of the RBDG B funds is to hire a consultant to assess the Town, preliminary design of

the project, coverage and site analysis, cost assessments, engineering, feasibility, customer demand and the overall economic impact.

Match contribution to be provided:

Assuming the grant will reimburse after the fact, within 3 months the Town will pay all of the invoices

then submit for reimbursement, less the grant match amount. The intended uses of the match is to

pay the contractor to conduct the study.

The nature of the commitment by the Town to deliver the match will be a resolution from the Town to

approve, accept, and maintain the project.

In the absence of an RBDG-B grant, the Town would not be able to pursue a full-scale analysis for a

broadband masterplan in the upcoming fiscal year because it is not in our budget and the town lacks the

staff to provide our own full-scale broadband masterplan. Staff has researched other funding

opportunities for rural broadband, but none exist for our community for this type of "B" project. Staff

has researched USDA broadband grants, however they closed in April 2019 and the Economic

Development Project Manager was not on staff until mid-April.

E. Project Description and Timeline - Development Matters

The project is to hire a broadband planning consultant. This person will conduct all analysis needed to be

done in order to prepare the town for development ready funding opportunities. This analysis will

include, but not limited to, asset assessment, preliminary design, coverage and site analysis, cost

modeling, engineering, feasibility, customer demand and economic impact.

The engineering analysis will be done by the consultant and therefor none will be submitted with this

grant application. The project approach will be conducted by the Economic Development Project

Manager and will enlist her to find a highly qualified consultant to conduct all of the aforementioned

analysis needed for the broadband masterplan project. The background of the project is that Chino

Valley is severely lacking in high-speed internet capability (some neighborhoods have as little as 3

MBPS), which is detrimental to the town attracting employers to locate or relocate here. We have zero

telemedicine capability, citizens cannot work from home and students cannot take classes online in their

residential neighborhoods without it taking too much time. Therefore, the Town recognizes this issue,

attended the ACA broadband workshop, has networked with APS and the ACA to educate herself on

broadband and thus decided to apply for the grant "B" first and next year grant A.

The population to be served is 22,659 based on a 15 minute drive-time demographic analysis, which is

the most appropriate for the area that we service, benefiting the unincorporated Paulden to our north.

Due to being only 20 minutes' drive to the 1-40, Chino Valley is a very strategic location for broadband.

The number of households served in the 15 minute drive-time is 9,251, 2 anchor business' (Safeway and

Clayton Homes) and approximately 488 businesses.

Please see attached maps for current connectivity:

Green= Trench

Red= Strand

Blue and Pink= Coax

Aqua= Fiber Green Dots = Modem users

F. Other Project Outcomes

The outcome of the RBDG-B grant is that it will lead to a broadband infrastructure development project.

The Town anticipates that the broadband masterplan created by a consultant will show an extreme

need for it and a very positive economic development benefit to your community.

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