The Hermosa Beach city yard maintains a low profile but serves the important functions of keeping streetlights, sewers systems and traffic flow in working order. The workers at the yard have long struggled with a poor internet connection. Only three team members could stream at once. This caused significant inefficiencies when participating in virtual meetings with staff, city officials and residents in a post-COVID online world.

Thanks to a newly added connection to the South Bay Cities Council of Governments’ (SBCCOG) high-speed, low-cost broadband network called the South Bay Fiber Network (SBFN), the city yard will no longer face the challenges of a substandard connection.

“This new connection will empower staff to fully engage with and assist in event planning, projects and resident requests,” said John Cordova, Hermosa Beach public works superintendent.“ These new capabilities have expedited workflow and increased the city’s responsiveness and ability to be proactive in addressing the concerns of residents. We expect this will result in the public seeing service requests closed more quickly.”

The SBFN connection allows staff to monitor key public works assets in real time. City lighting, sewer systems, traffic counters, irrigation and timers are cloud-based programs. With increased broadband capacity, these systems can be utilized in their full capability and issues can be responded to more quickly.

“This is a great example of the SBCCOG helping to meet local needs—especially since the city does not have funds for a similar fiber connection for the city yard,” said Doug Krauss, Hermosa Beach environmental programs manager. Krauss also noted that the installation process was smooth and did not disrupt staff capacity.

Hermosa Beach staff plan to build on this connection and will explore adding new technologies that will allow the city to deliver services more strategically and efficiently. The city hopes to bring more connections online to its city hall, police department and city yard through external funding sources.

“The connection to the SFBN at city yard came at the right time and has allowed our staff to improve the way we serve the Hermosa Beach community in a work environment where all departments increasingly rely on internet connectivity,” said Krauss. •

To learn more about the South Bay Fiber Network, visit southbaycities.org/south-bay-fiber-network