The Rosemount City Council has award­ed an $83,000 con­tract for in­stal­la­tion of fiber-op­tic cable at the Rosemount Business Park to re­place its out­dat­ed cop­per cable sys­tem.

Work on the pro­ject should be­gin later this spring, city of­fi­cials said.

MP NexLevel of Ma­ple Lake was award­ed the con­tract at the May 6 coun­cil meet­ing. Its base bid of $83,475.76 was the low­est of the three sub­mit­ted, but was 4 percent high­er than an ori­gi­nal es­ti­mate of $80,000, due to the "op­por­tu­ni­ty to serve the in­di­vid­u­al build­ings and de­sire to have an open public sys­tem," ac­cord­ing to city docu­ments.

Con­du­it will be laid along the 50-acre busi­ness park off County Road 42 and Hwy. 3. Of­fi­cials said that busi­ness own­ers must give the city a right of en­try "that would per­mit a con­trac­tor to in­stall the in­di­vid­u­al ser­vices from the public fiber in the right of way to their build­ing."

Con­tracts for serv­ice con­nec­tions would then be struck with prop­er­ty own­ers who wish­ to par­tici­pate.

The city is hop­ing to lure new busi­nes­ses and jobs to the area with its prom­is­es of an ul­tra-high-speed fiber op­tic net­work, said com­muni­ty de­vel­op­ment di­rec­tor Kim Lind­quist.

Lind­quist said the city is ex­pect­ed to use tax in­cre­ment finan­cing funds to pay for the pro­ject, which could cost more than $152,000.

The pro­ject, which would al­low for fu­ture ex­pan­sion, also would necessitate putting up a small build­ing along Boul­der Avenue to house "the in­di­vid­u­al com­pany rack­ing," of­fi­cials said. □

Libor Jany • 651-925-5033 Twitter:@StribJany