US:PA-4: Q about applying for USF discounts within a non-eligible municipal aggregate group (fwd)
Q about applying for USF discounts within a non-eligible municipal aggregate group (fwd)
bess (bess@info-ren.pitt.edu)
Tue, 7 Oct 1997 18:46:25 -0400 (EDT)
This is the type of question that came up yesterday at John Bailey's
workshop. I am a little timid to post this without official verification or
reference, but my understanding about such a situation is the following.
The libraries phone service need not be changed - meaning it would not be
necessary for a separate system to be installed - but the administrative
handling of the service - billing, or the documented payment of
allocated funds from the library's budget towards the general phone bill
- would have to be wholly separate. Physically separated, no.
Administratively separated, yes. My question at this point is would the
internal billing documentation be adequate or are the requirements more
precise? Would an internal invoice from the municipal government suffice?
Since it is the library which is eligible for the discount, and not the
municipal government, it is the library's responsibility to apply for the
discount. The FCC's application is currently expected to be available after
November 15, 1997. Those who are close to the process say that the FCC is
genuinely trying to make the application process as simple as possible.
After the application has been approved and the service
provider has been properly notified, the service provider's bill to the
facility will be reduced to reflect the library's discount. The
approval process should not produce too much paper, but it will produce
perfectly accountable evidence of the library's discount.
The point Laurie brought up about notifying municipal officials of the
discount program is a good one. In the course of getting ready for this
workshop, Information Renaissance used the Link-to-Learn database, contacted
related professional associations and tracked down representatives of
special needs organizations. We contacted all members of the Pennsylvania
Senate and House. These groups make up the seminar's immediate audience.
We did not send notices to each of Pennsylvania's municipalities.
Pennsylvania is a commonwealth. In my county alone, Allegheny, there are
130 municipalities. Off the top of my head, I do not know how many
municipalities there are within Pennsylvania. I think it would be a great
advantage for those who know of this program and have access to their
municipal directors to share the information with them.
Bess Adams
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 1997 14:36:44 -0400
From: L Tynan, Montgomery Cty-Norristown Lib <ltynan@mclinc.org>
To: us-pa@info-ren.pitt.edu
Subject: Q about applying for USF discounts within a non-eligible municipal aggregate group
The Montgomery County-Norristown Public Library, and several of the local
libraries in the district, get their "plain old telephone service" through
municipalities (for example: Montgomery County operates a CENTREX system
that includes the county library, several local libraries are in township
buildings where the library phones are a branch of the phone system
throughout the municipal building). In these cases, libraries do not
receive invoices for telephone service directly from the phone companies.
The municipality receives the bill and may charge back the portion of the
service cost to the library "cost center" as an internal accounting
procedure.
Municipal governments are not eligible to apply for USF discounts; however,
the libraries would be eligible entities. If the entity that contracts for
the phone service is a county or a township, would those municipalities
have to file some type of application in order for their library to receive
the discount? If so, would the municipal government have to jump through
all the hoops (writing a technology plan, posting bid specs on a website,
etc.) that libraries and schools must negotiate? I'm wondering whether
some libraries that are included in these types of aggregate groups will
have trouble getting their municipality to pay attention to the
requirements of the USF process. How much information have municipalities
other than school districts been given about this new program? Is there a
need to inform county commissioners, township supervisors, city managers,
and other elected/appointed officials about this so that they can cooperate
with their librarians in meeting the certification requirements needed to
get the discount on the library portion of shared telephone service?
Laurie Tynan, Executive Director
Montgomery County-Norristown Public Library
1001 Powell St., Norristown, PA. 19401-3817
voice tel: (610) 278-5100, x 37; fax: (610) 277-0344; email:
LTYNAN@MCLINC.ORG