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Medical Lake council unanimously approves Broadlink deal to bring city-owned fiber to City Hall

City of Medical Lake City Council · March 4, 2026

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Summary

Council approved a Broadlink letter of commitment to pull fiber from the highway to city hall and establish municipal fiber assets; staff said a small broadband-fund shortfall (~$6,500) can be covered by lease revenue or an interdepartmental accounting adjustment and that the water-tower component should be ready within weeks.

Medical Lake's City Council voted unanimously March 3 to approve a Broadlink letter of commitment that will pull fiber optic cable from the state highway to city hall and establish municipal fiber assets the city will own.

"This letter of commitment commences the project," Erin Schmidt, executive director of Broadlink Public Development Authority, told the council. Schmidt said the work will allow Medical Lake to operate an internal municipal network and to attract internet-service providers to deliver customer service across the area.

Finance Director Martin said the city's broadband fund currently shows a small cash shortfall of about $6,500 between on-hand funds and the project needs. Martin said staff expects lease payments for equipment on the water tower to recoup that amount by year's end, and—if necessary—an interdepartmental accounting transfer would cover the deficit temporarily.

Broadlink officials described a two-part build: fiber termination to the water tower and a separate pull from the highway to city hall that the city will own. Erin Schmidt said Broadlink will not connect anyone whose expected service would fall below Broadlink's service minimums, which the presenter said are a minimum of 100 megabits per second download and 20 Mbps upload to qualify as serviceable.

Councilmembers asked about maintenance and operations. Schmidt said the city can (1) use Broadlink's maintenance and on-call firms, (2) keep a separate contractor on retainer, or (3) rely on a network-operations provider that supplies 24/7 monitoring. "At this point, this letter does not include any maintenance," she said, and any service-fee agreement would come back to the council.

Mayor (speaker 1) noted the city already has fiber in the ground from earlier conduit work and praised Broadlink's role in making the project feasible. The council moved and passed Resolution 26-7-96 to authorize the commitment.

The city also discussed schedule expectations: staff said the water-tower antenna mounting should be complete and ready for subscribers within roughly six weeks, and the city-owned termination into City Hall and related tidy-up work should be finished before June.

Next steps: staff will finalize the reimbursement terms and bring any maintenance or service agreements back for council approval; council members said they expect to see final budget language and any fee proposals before authorization of service agreements.