Art looks into tasty dinners, security and tax dollars at work Every year the Utah non-Qwest telcos invite all Utah legislators to a posh dinner. The idea is that everyone enjoys a nice diner as a welcome respite from the two-month grind of doing what the voters expect. Mostly it's deciding how to spend money and how to sort out what the lobbyists want. This year President George W. Bush was the guest speaker. That's about the best bragging rights ever. Seems President Bush made his State of the Union address at the proper time. Nancy Gibbs, the association secretary, had a pair of big TVs set up for this event. The dinner was excellent. Bandwidth markets Last month I pointed out how there is a big market for available bandwidth on existing fiber routes worldwide. I mentioned rateXchange. Howard Holme of Bandwidth Market says they are very big in the market. So look them up at "bandwidthmarket.com." (then Ctrl+D for a door to fun information). Keeping safe With the increased emphasis on security, I queried most of the national associations to ask if they had or were working on security recommendations for their members. All say they do not have such programs. I recall that Ma Bell used to have at least one person per state who was assigned that function to go along with his other job. I think they got a gun and maybe recognition for some law enforcement powers. If some of you have thoughts about this - let me know. For example, some remote microwave sites have double block walls with sand in between. High-powered rifle bullets don't make it through. Some block buildings are made more secure by filling the inner block holes with concrete. Security suggests using pre-fab concrete instead of the metal buildings most of us use. Some pre-cast structures are designed to be buried. Some big pedestals are being replaced with buried vaults and/or really big pre-cast rooms. We're starting to install video cameras to snapshot who opens doors. Military liability The wicked witch of the west is known as Grace Jensen. I was talking to her predecessor at the Salt Lake district office of BLM. Asked how long it would take to get a permit to cross some BLM lands with fiber. She shook her head and said she felt sorry for me, as she was being transferred to Wyoming. Her replacement would take years to approve anything. I've mentioned before the 220 miles of fiber setting in the Beehive yard at Wendover going on three years. The latest excuse to a ROW was BLM getting the military to cancel our ROW on their lands on the west Utah-Nevada state line. BLM said the county road was on the old Deep Creek Railroad ROW which existed for 10 to 15 years before WW2. This is salt flats through which one day in '84 I plowed 14 miles of cable. BLM said there might be historic things near or on that salt-laden ground. Go 40 feet east. That then moves us onto military claims. Their lawyers earn taxpayer money by warning that there might be legal liability from unexploded thingies near the old ROW. For 60 years that area has been driven over by kids racing, and thousands of salt rats driving over the far smoother salt than the old railroad bed. Got to get an explosive ordinance detection (EOD) survey. Hill AFB said it would take them six months to do it. That would put our system upgrades into their fourth year. I understand Congressman Jim Hansen passed a message to the Base CO asking if maybe it could get done, like - now. Shortly after the new year, a couple of guys drove a pick-up the 150 miles from the AFB. Unloaded a quad runner. It's got a military metal detector up front. They drove down the ROW near and far. Nothing. Got home for dinner. Tax dollars at work. Copyright 2002 by A. W. Brothers and Americas Network magazine. All rights reserved.   © Beehive Telephone Co.