Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
Hurley — The Gogebic Range Broadband Committee received an update Wednesday on a pair of Department of Natural Resources fire towers in the southern part of Iron County.
The committee has been considering using them to expand broadband services in the area.
The county has been talking to the DNR about acquiring the towers — one near Pine Lake and the other in Springstead — and commissioned Coleman Engineering to complete an inspection of the towers.
Results of the inspection were reported Wednesday and there don’t appear to be any apparent issues with the towers.
“(The towers) look good to go,” said Iron County Development Zone Coordinator Kelly Klein, adding the inspection report was relatively brief.
According to Iron County Zoning Administrator Tom Bergman, the county will continue to work with the DNR on acquiring the towers, as well as meeting with the owner of the Springstead tower property.
According to information at the meeting, the county owns the land around the Pine Lake tower.
Klein said the state’s grant cycle got moved forward to spring and the county needed to “get rolling” if it wanted to compete in the next grant cycle.
The county also continues to work using three towers in the northern part of the county to expand Internet services there. The project was awarded $41,914 in a grant in December from the most recent cycle of state funding.
Bergman said the project is moving forward, but that there had been some roadblocks and they may have to build a tower, rather than use an existing tower, as originally planned.