In a surprise move, UTOPIA Executive Director Todd Marriott has stepped down and is no longer with the agency. The press release is light on details, but I can only assume that with the Macquarie deal in the works and UTOPIA meeting its financial targets under its five year plan, he may have felt like he’s completed course-correcting the ship.
Below is the press release. I’ll see if I can find out more.
UTOPIA Marriott Press Release_ 1 29 14.doc
I look forward to getting fiber. I was super enthused when
Utopia was announced and was looking forward to taking
down the copper Qworst cables and marching them into
the Qworst offices and posting the video on youtube.
Qworst has done nothing but block deployment of better
service over the years. Comcast can’t get their billing right
so that left me hoping for Utopia to succeed.
I can’t help but thinking there was something not just wrong
but criminal about what has happened with Utopia all these
years. It makes no sense to have dark fiber in my yard and
the city has had to put out all this money without getting
everyone hooked up.
Thanks for the updates,
Steve NV7V
Payson, Utah
Payson’s issues are pretty well-documented. When the refinance came around in 2008, the city decided to play a game of chicken with the other member cities to see who would blink first. They figured that they could put no more money into the system but get a full build-out because of how much stranded investment there was in the city. Instead of essentially blackmailing the other cities into paying to complete the network in Payson, it backfired and they still have stranded investment. The city hasn’t even attended board meetings for their existing commitment in years. I think it would be a good idea to direct ire at your city “leaders” who decided to cut bait.