Salt Lake might back out of fiber-optics venture

The Salt Lake City Council isn't sold on UTOPIA.

While the council — at the urging of Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson's administration — has voted to become one of 18 member cities of the Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency (which includes Cedar Hills, Lindon, Orem and Payson in Utah County), UTOPIA now wants cash up front. So with an already tight city budget, the council is beginning to think critically about the project's costs and whether the city should back out.

"We're all sort of worried about it," Councilman Van Turner said. "I still have to be convinced this is something that we should be doing."

Councilwoman Nancy Saxton agreed she was "dubious" about UTOPIA's financing.

"If someone really pushed us to a vote, I think it would be no," she said.

And losing the state's largest city, which currently accounts for 21 percent of UTOPIA's construction budget, could doom the public fiber optics network, which seeks to deliver high-speed cable and Internet access to every home and business in its member cities. "My guess is that if Salt Lake won't go along with this, this project may be in trouble," Councilman Dale Lambert said.

Still, UTOPIA's leaders remain hopeful they can move forward without Utah's capital, if need be.

"If they chose to withdraw, that would not, I don't believe, stop the other cities who originally started it in the first place from continuing on," said UTOPIA executive director Paul Morris.

It would mean, however, more of those smaller 17 cities would have to pledge sales tax revenue to back UTOPIA's construction bonds.

Last week, Salt Lake Deputy Mayor Rocky Fluhart asked the council to allocate $53,000 in bond fees that would be used to fund UTOPIA's $420 million construction costs.

Those fees are usually funded after the bonds are issued. However, UTOPIA recently learned bankers were treating the project like private agencies, who are required to pay fees up front.

The news of up-front payments has made more council members leery.

"I'm yet to be persuaded that we should be getting into this in a big way," Councilman Dave Buhler said. "I haven't totally shut the door, but I have a lot of questions." The council is set to have another UTOPIA briefing today. However, most council members say they will put off a vote on allocating the $53,000 until next month, ahead of UTOPIA's Feb. 1, 2004, deadline.