Durel was Keynote Speaker at the FTTH Council Meeting

Ok, I’ve been behind on FTTH posts-too much of what I’ve recently heard called “Katrita” work at the computer room down at the dome. An email today reminded me that we’d neglected to acknowledge Mayor Durel’s being honored by the FTTH council–he got a president’s award and was keynote speaker at the conference today. I’ll look forward to seeing a transcript of the speech. Mr. Durel has never been less than forthright in his language and my guess it that the speech will be fun to read and would have been more fun to hear. Lightwave lists the award:

President’s Award – Mayor-President, Joey Durel, Lafayette City-Parish, Louisiana

The President’s Award is given at the sole discretion of the FTTH Council President and singles out an individual or company that has shown tremendous effort to promote, educate, and accelerate fiber to the home. Mayor Joey Durel was chosen for his unwavering effort to overcome legal issues in the deployment of fiber to his community in Lafayette, Louisiana. Faced with the challenge of battling a national incumbent carrier, Mayor Durel successfully fought major political and financial obstacles with determination and focus. His commitment resulted in a public campaign and subsequent referendum in which the citizens voted in support of the Lafayette Fiber to the Home Project. Mayor Durel is a keynote speaker at the 2005 FTTH Annual Conference & Expo.

You can also take a look a the FTTH Council’s press release; it gist is:

Joey Durel, Mayor­President of Lafayette, LA will be a keynote speaker at their annual conference on Wednesday, October 5, 2005 at 9:00am. Lafayette will be the largest single municipality to have battled the challenges of the incumbent telecommunications providers. Mayor Durel will discuss his role in the For Fiber Campaign and how in July 2005 by a 62% to 38% vote, the citizens of Lafayette approved the Laf ayette Fiber to the Home Project.

Mr. Durel will share his eighteen­month experience leading up to the successf ul passage of a public referendum allowing the Lafayette Utilities System to seek $125,000,000 in revenue bonds to fund a community­wide FTTH deployment. Mayor Durel will f irst discuss the history of the Fiber to the Home project and then the three hurdles he personally had to overcome before he could publicly support the project ­ public versus private, f iber optic versus wireless technology and the f inancial risk. He will discuss the real motivation behind his outspoken
support of the initiative and will cover the successful passage of the Louisiana Local Government Fair Competition Act, SB 511, the results of the legislation, and the legal battles and lawsuits that ensued.

Of course, it’s not over yet. I’d not be surprised if Durel wasn’t chosen to be a speaker next year on his progres in overcoming regulatory madness, legislative sandbagging, frivolous lawsuits, faux academic studies “proving” that LUS will lose money, smearing ethics complaints made by the ethically challenged, and the spare bit of new misinformation.

…Some things are as predicatable as rain on an August afternoon in South Louisiana.