Longmont ballot items Fiber optic bonds Yes: 66% No: 34% Wastewater bonds Yes: 73% No: 27%

LONGMONT — Longmont voters gave the thumbs-up to two bond issues that will both target infrastructure upgrades.

Ballot measure 2B, which passed handily, will fast-track the build-out of the city’s fiber-optic loop, bringing high-speed Internet connectivity to any business or residence that wants it within three years.

Ballot measure 2A passed by an almost 3-to-1 margin. It will allow the city to issue bonds to upgrade its wastewater treatment plant to bring it up to new state standards.

Fast-tracking fast Internet speeds

2B’s passage means approval for the city to issue $45.3 million in bonds to build out the city’s 17-mile fiber optic loop within three years.

Longmont Power & Communications has estimated that the payback time on the bond will be 11 years. If revenues from commercial and residential customers fall short, LPC’s electric service revenues will be used to make up the shortfall, LPC staffers have told the Longmont City Council.

The city, the St. Vrain Valley School District and Longmont United Hospital have had access to the fiber optic loop for years, but the public — residents and businesses — have been mostly shut out of accessing it until recently. In 2011, voters approved a ballot measure that overturned a state law prohibiting local municipalities from leasing fiber, even if the cities owned their own loops, as Longmont does.

Longmont’s fiber optic loop was installed in 1997 at a cost of $1.1 million, paid for by Platte River Power Authority. Proponents of measure 2B have touted the economic benefits that use of the loop will bring as a major reason for building it out as rapidly as possible.

Voters approve wastewater plant upgrades

Ballot measure 2A allows the city to issue $31.1 million in bonds so the city can begin upgrading its wastewater treatment plant now in anticipation of new state standards taking effect in 2016.

City staff has said issuing debt to make the upgrades will mitigate having to raise rates in future years to pay for them.

Tony Kindelspire can be reached at 303-684-5291 or at tkindelspire@times-call.com.