Info: 10G Internet, Trash Hauling & Much More

Author: Phil Trubey

Date: April 16, 2024

Hello, Phil Trubey, RSFA Board member here sending an occasional email about RSF.

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We are finally getting competition in Rancho for trash hauling. As you know, homeowners must contract with either Waste Management or Edco for trash hauling. While they both provide 3 cu yard apartment sized dumpsters, only Waste Management had provided bin pickup. 

That has now changed, and Edco can now provide bin pickup as well. 

I personally switched from Waste Management to Edco many years ago after Waste Management kept hiking rates. At the time, I had been locked into a three year "contract" with them (unbeknown to me) requiring me to send them a registered letter to terminate the contract within 3 to 6 months before the contract end. Yikes. 

Anyways, I did so and have been very happy with Edco since, which is a smaller family run firm with no arduous contracts.

The ability for Edco to also service bins is great news and will give all homeowners another option.

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Race Communications, the Internet Service Provider for RSFA's fiber network, gave a presentation about their upcoming 10G offering at April's RSFA Board meeting.

The 1,200+ of us who are Race customers enjoy reliable symmetrical one gigabit per second speeds which is state of the art right now. 

Race is now about to offer symmetrical 10 gigabit to Rancho Santa Fe. We will be their first existing community to get it, and one of the very, very few nationwide to have it. None of the majors (Spectrum, Cox, AT&T) support that speed.

For many Race customers, the existing gigabit speed is plenty, so don't feel you are missing out if you don't want to upgrade. However there are tech savvy people in this community who will want this.

Race will offer the upgrade at zero installation cost. Monthly charge will be $150/month for 10 gigabit versus our current $70 for 1 gigabit. Race will start accepting upgrade orders May 9th.

Another bit of good news for Rancho customers. Both the finance committee and full Board have agreed that the current $65/month surcharge is no longer necessary as of the new fiscal year starting July 1st. We have accumulated enough money to pay off the fiber network construction loan, and the relatively smaller maintenance costs will be folded into the general services budget. This isn't official yet as the Board hasn't voted the budget, but the Board asked staff to put this into the fiscal 24/25 budget. 

If you aren't yet a Race customer, and don't have a conduit from your house to the road where the fiber terminates, you'll have to build a conduit to cover the distance. This can cost several thousand dollars, but the cost can be mitigated if you build your own conduit rather than have Race do it. Race will still charge an install fee to run the fiber to your property from the nearest fiber drop point, and then into your conduit to your house, but it'll be cheaper. I'm always happy to help anyone with some free consulting if you have questions about this or anything else related to the Internet.

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Rancho is lawyering up and if this continues, it may destroy the community.

This started with a now settled lawsuit against the Association. But now at least three different people/groups have hired the same plaintiff lawyer (Michael Aguirre) to represent them in actions against either the Association or individual Association members. 

For instance, RSF Post editor Rachel Laffer (who is not an Association member) hired him to push back against questions about a recent Post article. In another Post article, she called Aguirre "a family friend". You can read one side of that story here.

As the old saying goes, when lawyers get involved, only the lawyers profit. The Association has already incurred significant extra legal fees in this fiscal year and will have to budget something similar for next year's budget.

Bear in mind that we are all volunteers here with all Boards, committees and Members engaging in public debate. Public debate is very much needed and helps fashion better policies. But nothing squelches such debate faster than receiving a legal letter. 

Hopefully none of the current actions will flare up into something more serious, but if they do, Association progress on a myriad of positive community enhancing initiatives could grind to a halt. 

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As an RSFA Board member, I am always available to any Member that wishes to talk. I can be reached at ptrubey@rsfaboard.com or just reply to this email.

Phil Trubey

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