KEWAUNEE CO, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – If you’re working, or learning from home these days, you’re going to need to get online.
“Certainly it’s brought a lot of attention to it, the current situation,” said Kewaunee County Board Chairman Robert Weidner.
But, Weidner tells FOX 11 Kewaunee County’s plan to bring affordable, high speed internet started in 2016, well-before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There are many people that have inadequate service and some have adequate service, but they’re paying a very high monthly premium. I think we can help them with that and the quality should go up, it should be at a reasonable cost.”
Kewaunee County applied for the Public Service Commission’s grant which, just last week, awarded $24 million to expand high speed internet services to rural communities. Kewaunee County received $960,000.
“We are finding that our citizens, which is kind of unlikely at times, are in favor of the county spending money on this project,” said Weidner.
Kewaunee County teamed up with Bug Tussel Wireless, a Green Bay-based company that offers high-speed internet to rural communities across Wisconsin.
The Public Service Commission said that partnership was a huge plus when deciding to award them a grant.
“Certainly, Kewaunee County had a strong application in that sense where they did form a public-private relationship with Bug Tussle and the county and they had quite a bit of engagement from the local folks as well,” said Public Service Commission of Wisconsin’s Broadband Director Jaron McCallum. “I think they had a hundred, maybe more than that, letters of support which is great.”
“Late last year we sent out a questionnaire with our tax bills to every tax payer in the county, property taxpayer, asking them to submit letters of interest for better broadband,” said Weidner. “We got a huge response, and with that being turned over to the PSC as evidence of what the need is in this county, it was very convincing for the Public Service Commission to realize how much need there was.”
Although high-speed internet may be a pressing need now, this is a project that is just getting started and, as McCallum tells FOX 11, could take up to two years.
“We would’ve been making these awards regardless of the pandemic, but given the current state of situations I think we’re all aware of how important connectivity is in times like this.”
Weidner, though, said he hopes to have at least some service up and running by the end of this year.
