Broadband committee moves forward with grant application

HURLEY — Members of the Gogebic Range Broadband Committee met this week to discuss moving forward with applying for a grant through the state of Wisconsin to expand Internet access to residents in northern Iron County.

The committee is working on an application for a state Broadband Expansion Grant that would help fund the expansion of broadband Internet to residents around Saxon, Anderson and the Gile Flowage, using existing towers in the region.

One of the towers, on Radar Hill near Whitecap Mountains and the town of Anderson, is owned by the county.

The other two — one off Upper Road near Saxon and the other on Germania Hill, off Geneva Street in Hurley — are owned by private companies that allow the county to use portions of the tower for communication purposes.

It remains uncertain whether there would be a cost to use the towers for broadband purposes and whether the costs could alter the project.

“I think Germania Hill is going to be the big questions mark,” said Iron County Zoning Administrator Thomas Bergman. “I think Saxon, I get the feeling you’d probably be able to latch on as part of the county.”

Brandon Yuchasz, with GogebicRange.net, who has been working with the committee, indicated the company could possibly be open to paying a lease for the towers — depending on the price. He also suggested that if lease rates are too high, the amount the county offered in matching funds as part of the grant could be reduced to offset the other costs.

The grant doesn’t require local governments provide matching funds, according to Will Andresen, of the University of Wisconsin’s Iron County Extension Office, but the ability to share costs would increase the probability of an application’s approval. With this in mind, consensus among committee members was to attempt to provide a 50 percent match, or at least as close to that figure as possible, when submitting the application.

“Our goal is to come up with 50 percent of (the project costs),” Andresen told the Daily Globe, “or a good faith local match.”

The suitability of the northern towers means the committee won’t pursue grant funding for an alternate plan which focuses on several towers owned by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources near Pine Lake. At previous meetings, it was established that the population, and potential customer base, within range of the towers is large enough that developing broadband in that area is economically viable without grant funding.

While final numbers for the grant application are still being worked out, preliminary estimates show the cost of making the towers capable of relaying broadband signals would be around $22,000 to $24,000, according to Yuchasz, putting the total cost of the project around $66,000.

Of that, Yuchasz said his company would likely contribute around $10,000, most of which would be by providing labor for the project.

Remaining funds would likely provided by either the county or local economic development groups, Andresen said.

The grant application deadline is Sept. 30, according to information provided by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission.