Latest news with #Graczyk
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Hubert Graczyk among Manchester United's departures in latest squad update
Since INEOS took control of football operations at Manchester United, they have developed a knack for scouting wonderkids and grooming them into future superstars. Samuel Lusale, Chido Obi, Ayden Heaven, Sekou Kone, and Hubert Graczyk are among the young talents brought in and tipped for stardom. Some prospects have thrived, others have struggled While these prospects showed immense promise during scouting, proving their worth at the club was another challenge altogether. Advertisement Youngsters like Obi and Heaven forced their way into first-team football, while Lusale and Kone have made notable strides at the academy, justifying the compensation paid for their acquisitions. However, not everyone has managed to live up to expectations. Goalkeeper Hubert Graczyk is one of those academy signings who struggled to find his footing at Carrington. Much like attacking prospect Obi, Graczyk made the switch from Arsenal to United last summer. Unlike Obi, who had to transition under pressure, Graczyk's move did not attract much scrutiny as he had already been released by the Gunners when United made the approach. Advertisement However, one year later, it has become clear that settling in was harder than expected. Graczyk's tough year at Man United The 6'3″ shot-stopper featured just three times for United's U21 side in the Premier League 2 and conceded 11 goals, a worrying statistic. While disappointing, some might have hoped he could still be refined into a solid goalkeeper. Unfortunately, that will not be the case, at Carrington at least. As part of their latest squad update, The Red Devils confirmed that Graczyk's contract will not be renewed, ending his time at Old Trafford. Was his exit inevitable? At 22 years old, Graczyk should already be playing regular senior football. Advertisement Yet, despite knowing first-team opportunities would not be guaranteed at Old Trafford, he still chose to make the move. With the club eager to loan out academy goalkeepers Elyh Harrison and Radek Vitek last summer, Graczyk may have simply been viewed as a backup option. Rather than rejecting that role in search of guaranteed playing time, he accepted it. Perhaps he hoped to impress and earn a place in United's senior squad, but unfortunately, that never materialized. Even as United reshape their goalkeeping department, Graczyk now finds himself searching for a new club. Hopefully, a top side takes a chance on him and allows him to rediscover his best form. Other notable exits at Old Trafford Alongside Graczyk, United also confirmed the departures of Victor Lindelöf, Christian Eriksen, and Jonny Evans, among other talents, in their latest squad update.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Clermont names new police chief
Clermont has a new police chief who's no stranger to law enforcement. John Graczyk has been acting as interim chief since April. He joined the Clermont Police Department in 2005. He became a sergeant in the patrol division and the crime suppression unit, as well as captain of the uniform service division. He was named deputy chief in January 2022. Graczyk will replace former Chief Charles Broadway, who stepped down to take a job at another agency eariler this year. 'Chief Graczyk is a dedicated officer who has repeatedly demonstrated his ability to lead the Clermont Police Department,' interim city manager Rick Van Wagner said. 'Our City Council, our staff, and our community have made it very clear who they believe should be Clermont's next Police Chief. It was an easy decision and we are pleased to have him.' He is also a former Marine who served in Iraqi Freedom. 'Clermont is my home and I am honored to be given this opportunity to lead this outstanding staff of sworn officers, civilian staff and volunteers,' Graczyk said. 'I am grateful for the overwhelming support of this community, our City Council, Interim City Manager and staff, my family and the entire department. I am excited and eager to continue to find new and better ways to protect and serve our community,' Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Time to re-boot for Chaska.net?
It has been more than five years now since began residential service in town. The city's wireless Internet utility has come a long way since then, as has Internet in general. And like the Internet, no one has a good idea of what exactly the future will hold for 'There are decision points coming up,' said City Administrator Matt Podhradsky. 'But I don't see not in existence.' Within the next three to four years, Podhradsky said the city will likely consider whether to invest more in the service or put it in private hands. With that notion on the horizon, city officials feel they have done what they set out to do several years ago – provide affordable connectivity. 'Our mission was not to be the sole provider [of Internet],' said Podhradsky. 'We see competition as meeting our mission.' History Rewind to 2004 – that was before Twitter, back when Facebook was a fledgling operation that few had heard of, and when saying you connected to the Internet using dial-up didn't get you laughed out of the room. Back then, city leaders dreamt of providing a service that gave businesses and residents an affordable way to connect to the Internet. 'We were tired of waiting for [cable companies] to provide bandwidth at competitive prices,' said Podhradsky. They opted to capitalize on a public/private partnership started five years earlier in 1999 when KMC, predecessor to CenturyLink, approached the city about installing fiber in Chaska right-of-way. The partnership allowed KMC to provide phone service, while the city handled data service. Chaska started slowly, connecting City Hall, the community center, the government center and municipal services. But soon, they yearned to go further. 'We asked, 'How can we use this for the city?'' said City Treasurer Noel Graczyk. The city moved forward to use the fiber to become an Internet Service Provider (ISP). It signed on the school district as its first customer. The question then arose as to if they could provide better bandwidth to businesses and a reasonably-priced service to residents. The city began building a point-to-multipoint wireless system. Antennas were installed on water towers, which allowed those line-of-sight customers to connect to the Internet. The service continues to this day, operating in Chaska, Chanhassen, Shakopee, Victoria, Waconia, Cologne and Norwood Young America, as well as providing service to 36 local business customers. While the point-to-multipoint worked well for those in line-of-sight, it didn't address a broader residential need, Graczyk said. In late 2003/early 2004, Chaska's then-IS manager Brad Mayer began to look at a mesh technology that wouldn't require users to be within an antenna's line-of-sight. 'Wi-Fi showed a lot of potential,' said Graczyk. The city opted to head into virtually uncharted waters. 'It was a very brave decision,' said Podhradsky. Hundreds of Tropos routers would be installed around town. Once operational, the routers would essentially 'talk to each other' and create greater opportunities for residents to connect to the Internet. 'It was a new and unproven technology,' said Graczyk. 'It was a very different way of connecting,' added Podhradsky. During the spring of 2004, the routers began appear on the tops of traffic signals and light poles. Meanwhile, city staff busied themselves building the systems to go along with including e-mail and Web hosting. The Wi-Fi network was initially left open to give people a chance to experience it before signing up for the service. Buzz generated quickly. 'The challenge was that we had no idea how many customers would take this,' said Graczyk. The first bridges were shipped to customers that June. 'We shipped 1,200 bridges the first day,' said Graczyk. 'But we were not sure how fast to ramp this up.' Officials predicted the service would build slowly up to about 4,000 customers. But by the time billing began, 2,000 households were signed up. Expectations did not meet everyone's expectations, though. Ryan Hagelstrom said was 'completely unreliable back in 2005.' 'It was terrible for us when it launched,' he wrote on the Herald's Facebook page. Hagelstrom wasn't alone. 'While I love the concept of city-wide Wi-Fi, our experience with was that it was too slow and not accommodating for a net-savvy household,' shared resident Greg Swan. 'When people started to connect, yes, they had problems,' said Graczyk. 'We were providing retail service on a scale that had not been tried before.' City staff soon became well-versed on what affected residents' abilities to get good Internet service including bridge placement and impediments like wire mesh embedded in stucco siding and metal in windows. 'After time, people got it,' said Podhradsky. But Chaska soon realized that the original routers were not meeting their own expectations. In 2005, Tropos came out with a new router that the city opted to trade for their old routers. 'It provided a better experience for customers,' said Graczyk. While they bargained on having to iron out some kinks in the service when they launched, city staff didn't realize they would be getting service calls from people who didn't know how to turn on their computers, much less configure them for wireless Internet. 'The service desk calls overwhelmed us,' said Podhradsky. 'There was a lot of 'We don't know how to use our computer.'' 'We were always meant to be a self service, low-cost service,' he added. Around that time, Chaska began expanding its fiber, adding lines along Audubon and Hundertmark roads. Those additions allowed the city to better serve eastern Chaska and Clover Ridge. Chaska also figured out ways to use the service more efficiently to its benefit, hooking it up to monitor other utilities, including water levels and sewer pumps, remotely. Comfortability By 2006, Chaska was getting more comfortable running an Internet utility. It had partnered with Siemens to outsource some of the service desk calls and network monitoring. That move provided the freedom to work on a proposal to build St. Louis Park's municipal Wi-Fi. 'That was an opportunity to make system improvements and operate both networks as one,' said Graczyk. St. Louis Park didn't select Chaska to build its Wi-Fi, though. Instead, they opted for a solar-powered model that never quite got off the ground. Chaska city staff maintains that St. Louis Park should have chosen them. For the most part, there is a greater confidence in these days. Bandwidth has increased (119 percent in the last year), signals have strengthened (thanks to more router gateways) and those with expectations of a system to rival cable at a dial-up price, have moved on. 'Some had to shake themselves out and find 'It's not for me,'' said Podhradsky. Others, like Hagelstrom, found themselves leaving only to give it a second chance after some time had passed. 'We tried it again a couple of years ago and have been with it ever since,' he wrote. 'They have a router across the street from our house so I'm sure that helps out our service. Speed is not as fast as cable, but sufficient for a multi-computer family. The price is right. I'm happy with it, but I can easily see people not being happy with it if they are not close enough to a router to get a good solid connection.' with around 2,100 customers, currently offers residential speeds of up to 1.2 Mbps for $19.99 a month. Future As technology continues to evolve, Chaska will soon have to decide whether to keep upgrading or put it in private hands. Small tweaks to the system have already taken place, between the outsourcing of service calls to Siemens to the migration of e-mail to Google. Despite the $3.3 million investment (including almost $1 million in fiber), the service has never been a money maker for the city. Over the next five years, operations are expected to turn a maximum annual profit of $807 in 2010. The city is still paying down the debt on the service. One advantage to being part of the public sector was that it didn't have to make a profit, it just had to break even, Podhradsky said. But if a private company could offer residents connectivity at an affordable price, the city would have to consider selling it. Last summer, the city of Moorhead, which launched its Internet utility just after Chaska, did just that. GoMoorhead was sold to 702 Communications for $1.2 million. When Minneapolis decided to move ahead with their massive wireless network, they partnered with USIWireless of Minnetonka. While USIWireless funds, builds and maintains the network, the city of Minneapolis, which owns the fiber optics used, agrees to serve as the anchor tenant, committing to $1.25 million of annual usage for the duration of its 10-year contract. St. Louis Park has abandoned its plans for municipal Internet. 'However, the city is planning a 2010 study of its fiber infrastructure to determine whether there are opportunities for its use beyond connecting city and school buildings,' wrote Clint Pires, St. Louis Park chief information officer, in an e-mail. 'In addition, the city has been approached by LocalLoop MAX, a private Internet provider which is interested in leasing some city-owned fiber to support its planned Wi-MAX offering.' Buffalo Bucking municipal trends is Buffalo – a town northwest of the Twin Cities, perfectly happy to retain control of their Internet utility. 'We're pretty comfortable,' said Buffalo City Administrator Merton Auger. After getting an early start in 1996 with a 900 megahertz point-to-multipoint system, the city is now looking at a fourth generation Wi-Fi product to keep pace with technology. 'We said if we're going to get into this, we're going to do this right,' explained Auger, who said he's also known as the CGO – 'Chief Geek Officer.' They paid attention to the problems Chaska faced as it launched and when Buffalo went to Wi-Fi mesh, it offered a free antenna to boost signal and serve as a wireless router. That move seemed to keep customers happy by minimizing connectivity issues. In the town of 15,000, Buffalo currently provides Internet to 1,300 residential and business customers. 'We've grown every month,' said Auger. In addition to growing their customer base, Buffalo has also made money with their Internet utility. The city made an initial investment of $1 million in fiber optics, but future upgrades were able to be paid for through subscriber fees. 'We always put money back into the system,' said Auger. To remain competitive, Buffalo recently lowered its monthly fees. Residential customers now pay as little as $14.99 a month for the city's Bison QuantumCONNECT, offering speeds of up to 512 Kbps. The move will ding the utility $10,000 in its first year, but then should bring them back in the black. 'We've embraced technology,' said Auger. 'It's effective and efficient for us and it's relevant to residents and businesses.' More businesses 'On a whole, it worked and it's still working,' said Graczyk, of Though city officials have tamed expectations to add just 60 new residential customers a year (down from 250), the city stands by its decision to develop an Internet utility. 'I think it was a very good decision, good investment,' said Podhradsky. 'It was real exciting, challenging to bring online,' said Graczyk. Business customers in the commercial and industrial realm remain a positive prospect for the city. 'Our goal is to grow corporate/industrial,' said Podhradsky. As the Biotech Center develops on the western edge of the city, Chaska plans to complete its fiber loop to service the area. 'There is still a need,' said Podhradsky. 'Especially for businesses.' Fiber is where the city sees a fruitful future. 'The technology has a long, useful life,' said Podhradsky. 'Perhaps in new ways.'
