October 21, 2009 – Our Town – Delaware

OWU has given Delaware County access to two of its 72 fiber optic strands, in a one-year agreement with the County.

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OWU to the Rescue
Fiber-optic agreement enhances county’s emergency communications capabilities

When Delaware County needed to bulk up its fiber optics to enhance emergency communications capabilities, county officials turned to Ohio Wesleyan University for help.

After discussing the county’s needs and the urgency of its request, Ohio Wesleyan agreed to give the county access to two of OWU’s 72 fiber-optic strands. On Oct. 15, Delaware County commissioners approved the one-year, no-cost agreement.

“Ohio Wesleyan is happy to be a good neighbor and work with Delaware County to improve emergency communications for the region,” says Theresa Byrd, chief information officer and director of libraries. “Over the next year, we will review the agreement, in collaboration with both county and city officials, to look for ways to build redundancy into our fiber-optic network.”

Fiber-optic strands are used transmit large amounts of data at extremely high speeds. Building redundancy into the OWU network—as well as the city and county networks—would help to ensure that if something went wrong with one network, the others could keep it functioning while repairs were made.

“We know how important it is for students, faculty, and staff to be able to access the Internet on campus,” Byrd says. “Ultimately, we should be able to limit future downtime by strategically collaborating with the county and city.”

The current agreement between Ohio Wesleyan and Delaware County enables the county to move forward with plans to connect its emergency communications systems with systems in Dublin and Worthington. The additional connectivity will allow police and fire officials to communicate more effectively during emergencies.

Steve Lewis, Delaware County’s IT director, says if the county had been required to pay for T1 data lines for the project, the lines would have cost taxpayers about $50,000 per year. “We will see Internet savings as well,” he says, as a result of the agreement with Ohio Wesleyan.

Because the county already has tapped into OWU’s fiber-optic strands, Lewis anticipates the expanded emergency communications capabilities will be “live and working by mid-November.”

On a related note, officials from Delaware County and the City of Delaware also have signed a letter of collaboration to work cooperatively on future fiber-optic initiatives to help keep regional communications flowing smoothly.

– Cole Hatcher