PHILLIPS — The Price County Board of Supervisors approved (9-3) a resolution for a $15 million bond for a broadband internet infrastructure development at the June 18 meeting. The multi-county project is proposed by Green Bay based Bug Tussel Wireless LLC. Board members Jason Hastings, Dennis Wartgow and Larry Palecek voted against the bond resolution. Jordan Spacek was not present.
The initial resolution is to show county willingness to join the multi-county project but does not approve a bond purchase. The proposal is to build 87 miles of fiber along with eight communication towers and equipment for 10 towers.
The real benefit for the county is that the agreement eliminates rental fees or construction costs for county emergency communications equipment, and the risk is mitigated with tower and equipment assets as collateral, said County Administrator Nick Trimner. The county is essentially a co-signer on a multi-county project with Fond du Lac County setting up the bonds. The resolution allows Bug Tussel to continue putting the project and financing together.
“There’s still a long process, this does not mean we’re doing it today,” Trimner said.
The discussion between Price County and Bug Tussel Wireless started in October 2023 when Mitchel Olson, chief development officer and general counsel for Bug Tussel, presented the “Road to Digital Equality-Rural Open Access Design” project proposal to the executive committee. The company builds towers in partnership with cellular providers and provides wireless broadband service as a short term solution with the goal to build fiber optic service in partnership with the county.
If the bond is approved, this project could be completed in 2025 but factors could push the work into 2026.
The towers are around 5 miles apart to provide adequate range for wireless internet, according to the presentation. The second phase is a fiber optic middle mile loop that will serve as an incentive for third party internet providers to link rural residents along the line.
Board members at the June 18 meeting were concerned that existing data and telephone companies serving the county had announced grants in the past to expand rural broadband but to date only the most populated areas of Park Falls, Phillips and Prentice have been put in service, while the more sparsely populated areas are not. Olson said that over time there will be more grant opportunities to add towers and fiber lines to additional communities in the county.
As for the proposed project, there would be lines going through the area of Knox, Spirit, and Hill to the east and Georgetown to the west. Projects to the north and east would require conversations with Norvado Inc., on their intentions for those areas of the county before planning other projects.
“We have a number of towns that we are touching with fiber, and then 10 tower sites does a pretty decent job of covering a lot of people throughout the county,” Olson said. “...It’s certainly not 100% coverage for everyone on fiber, but at the budget point we’re talking about, that’s what we can get done and that’s kind of the best use and placement of the towers and the fiber that we’ve really put together.”
Board members Paula Houdek, representing the southeastern municipalities, and Robert Kopisch, representing the northwestern municipalities including Butternut, were concerned that this big project announcement would have rural residents thinking that broadband is on the way when in fact it still leaves many rural communities without internet. The two supported the resolution for broadband infrastructure development but said when the time comes to approve the bond they want the public to be more informed through the public hearing process before the board makes a final commitment.
“I was ready to vote one way, or maybe I’ll vote the other way, I don’t know,” Kopisch said. “But the public needs to understand what’s going on, and right now, I don’t think this board really understood what was going on until this meeting.”
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