By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
City Hall officials were hurrying this week to complete an application for a privately funded grant of up to $180,000 that would establish a Williston broadband internet utility named C.O.W Link.
C.O.W. stands for City of Williston. The deadline for submitting the grant was Thursday, March 4. City staff said they were hopeful they could meet the deadline and potentially get the grant money.
“It’s quite an intense grant. We’ll give our best because our city deserves it so we want to provide it,” Gorman said.
The C.O.W. transmitter would be anchored to the top of the city’s water tower and would broadcast to customers throughout the city. Customers would pay a fee to use it just like water customers pay to use the city’s water system.
The Expanded Potential in Communities (EPIC) grant is being funded by Truist Bank. BB&E and SunTrust combined to form Truist Bank. Truist and The Internet Society are sponsoring the EPIC grant program.
The Truist Corporation’s Trust Cares Initiative is using a $50 million philanthropic pledge to help rebuild communities in company markets affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Gorman said City Planner Laura Jones found the grant. She routinely pores over grants that could possibly be used to help the city. When she realized the grant opportunity, city staff started working on it last week.
“It’s not just hooking up a wire. We have to put the whole process together for billing,” Gorman said. “It’s like starting a business. What are we going to do with our design? What are we going to do with our infrastructure? Cost it out; how are we going to manage it in 1 -3 and 5-year periods?”
Gorman introduced Aaron Mills, the city’s new Information Technology director and the man who will run the C.O.W. Link broadband utility for the city. City council members initially hired him to manage their meeting room speaker system and connect it to an internet link that lets people listen and participate remotely in council meetings.
Mills said the idea of providing a reliable and affordable internet broadband for the city’s residents is not a new idea. He said it’s been done thousands of times around the world. He said Lumen/Century Link would provide the backbone for the system. He said Lumen would provide the fiber optic support and Century Link wouldn’t have much involvement, if any.
“As we know, most of us live around this area. What we have is not very sufficient and our goal is to provide something that is better and more affordable,” Mills said. “Basically it’s going to be wireless access internet to a fiber connection available to the city and in the future maybe outside the city.” He mentioned Bronson as a town that could potentially benefit.
In response to a question from Councilwoman Debra Jones, Mills said additional towers are planned though not in Phase 1. The city wants to get the system up and running in Phase 1 first.
He showed the audience a map of the future coverage area. He said anything in light blue would be able to get access to the internet provided they have a “somewhat clear line of sight” to the transmitter.” He said terrain, trees, and buildings and weather could impact reception of the signal.
Mills said he will probably be the person who climbs the water tower to maintain the transmitter.
“If the grant is awarded, the Internet society and all of their experts come in and assist too, so you have a lot of eyes on this to make sure it works appropriately going forward,” Mills said. “We feel comfortable it’s going to be effective and affordable based on the numbers we’ve crunched thus far.”
Dr. Kenneth Schweibert Pavilion
One other business item approved by the council was to name the Heritage Park Pavilion after Dr. Kenneth Schweibert.
Schweibert was also reappointed to the Community Redevelopment Agency for another four-year term.
CRA oversaw development of Heritage Park for the City Council, constructed the pavilion, and built the Veterans Memorial.
The Veterans Memorial became a challenging project at the park when problems arose with the contractor. Schweibert stuck with the project and it was eventually completed by the contractor.
The motion by Councilman Elihu Ross to name the Heritage Park Pavilion for Dr. Kenneth Schweibert Pavilion passed unanimously.
Councilwoman Debra Jones voted in favor of the motion but reserved the right to contact Schweibert to find out much of his name he wanted on the name plaque.
———————
City of Williston Regular Meeting March 2, 2021; Posted March 4, 2021
