Governor visits Hurley to award high-speed Internet grant

By RICHARD JENKINS

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Hurley - Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker visited Hurley Tuesday to announce Iron County's broadband grant was successful.

"We're pleased to be here ... talking about this grant today, and it's really a great partnership. We've got the private sector, we've got the county and the county economic development elements all coming together here and we're pleased to be a part of it," Walker said.

The county will receive a $41,914 Broadband Expansion Grant from the Wisconsin Public Service Commission 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.

The total project cost is expected to be approximately $78,699 with the county's portion coming from a mix of cash and in-kind labor, according to Will Andresen, with the University of Wisconsin Iron County Extension Office. Andresen has been working on several projects to expand the county's broadband access and was one of main writers of the grant.

Those in the expanded coverage area are a mix of those without Internet currently and those who will have the opportunity for faster internet speeds once the project is completed.

Walker said approximately 30 businesses and 2,000 people could be potentially impacted by project.

During the announcement, Walker spoke of the importance of the public and private sector working together to develop technological infrastructure.

"To me, government has a limited role. The closer to the people, the better off it is. I don't like the state government getting in the way of a lot of things; but where it's appropriate - where there is a partnership - it makes sense," said Walker, tying the development of broadband to previous efforts to develop roads and public utilities. "So you just think about all the advances and what it's meant, not just for our quality of life but for the economy and how things work."

He also said access to high-speed internet was a crucial part of growing businesses.

"We've seen for years, as we've been here and been elsewhere around the state, a business can be anywhere in the world these days. To be a successful business you don't have to be in Milwaukee, or the Twin Cities or Green Bay even, or Wausau," Walker said. "You can be anywhere in the world, but one of the key things to have a successful business is to be able to communicate, to have communications wherever a customer and other partners might be along the way. And if people don't have access to high-speed wireless connections, in particular, that becomes a huge challenge for both keeping businesses as well as attracting new ones."

He especially noted the difficulty rural areas of Wisconsin had and he said the grants are a way to help these under-served communities.

"With the population (in Northern Wisconsin) the way that it is, it's at a point where - particularly around forest-based areas, but it's true in other rural parts as well - if there isn't a little bit of leverage from the public sector to help the private sector, the costs and the return on investment just isn't there for a private telecommunication company to make an investment ... in many of the areas of the state where the population base just doesn't warrant that," Walker said. "This is our way of saying we're going to help, we'll leverage the dollars."

Because of this importance, he said the state tripled the amount of funding for expanding broadband access in the most recent budget and hopes to further expand funding opportunities in the future.

Ellen Nowak, chairperson of the Public Services Commission, also spoke at the announcement.

Nowak praised the county's application saying it was judged on a number of factors including level of existing service for the area, potential for the project to grow in the future and the amount the local community provided in matching contributions.

The commission received 28 applications worth $4.4 million in projects, Nowak said, and was able to award $1.5 million in grants.

When introducing Walker, Iron County Development Zone Coordinator Kelly Klein said the project would benefit everyone from residents, to businesses to tourists.

"With Gov. Walker's assistance; Iron County, the county's broadband committee and the economic development corporation have partnered on a project that is going to affect many residents and businesses in our county. This project can potentially help grow the number of businesses in the Hurley Industrial Park, as well as home-based businesses. Our tourism industry can also be enhanced (by the project.)

Iron County Board of Supervisors Chair Joe Pinardi told the Daily Globe he was "ecstatic" that the project was being funded.

Andresen said the project would likely begin in late spring or early summer with the goal of being completed by late summer.