Supervisors OK pivot on broadband project

Pivoting project

We will serve 134 addresses now. We’re looking at 14 miles of backbone, but still creating the resiliency that we set out to do in the first place. The cost is going to be a little bit lower.”

Mike Norris, administrator SIREPA

LEE COUNTY – A change in direction in broadband improvements underway in Lee County was approved by supervisors without much discussion Monday.
Southeast Iowa Regional and Economic Port Authority administrator Mike Norris made a brief update to supervisors about the changes to a plan that was originally set to build a fiber optic backbone up through Lee County from Keokuk to Hwy. 16 and then east to Hwy. 61. That project would have provided internet to 125 unserved customers on 57 miles of backbone.
The project would have created just under $1 million in lease payments back to SIREPA over 10 years.
However, due to a 39% increase over projected costs of the project, Danville Mutual Telephone Co., the company that would be providing the broadband service, had to pivot to a less costly option.
The company secured $1.9 million in America Rescue Plan Act funding from the county to trigger another $3.5 million in state grants to expand the infrastructure in the county.
The state grant came from the Office of the Chief Information Officer. That office had to approve the changes, then SIREPA had to approve the changes, and finally supervisors had to give approval.
Norris said the next thing to do to drive at the original purpose of the effort, which was to provide service to unserved and underserved while at the same time creating the redundant capabilities for Danville Telecom, was to retool the plan to fit current budgeting.
“We brought in Danville Telecom, as well as remaining in constant contact with SIREPA liaisons to the board in Tom (Schultz) and Garry (Seyb), we had a couple meetings to really see how we could drive the purpose and make it affordable to the resources we had,” Norris said.
The new project will serve more addresses than the original project, but with the backbone being the expensive part it was shrunk down to the point where the resiliency was maintained but at a lower cost, he said.
“We will serve 134 addresses now. We’re looking at 14 miles of backbone, but still creating the resiliency that we set out to do in the first place. The cost is going to be a little bit lower.”
He said the county’s ARPA funds will still be used for a match, but then direct spent to run fiber optics directly to homes in the Wever area.
Supervisors had no questions about the change in plans despite the project changing substantially. The fiber optic upgrade will now include a redundant loop from Keokuk to Argyle that is currently under construction. That gives Danville more reliable service to customers as well as cellphone towers.
Danville Telephone CEO Tim Fencl told supervisors that his company provides data service to more than 30 cell towers and this infrastructure helps solidify that service as well.
Fencl said Danville Telecom serves about 230 businesses with fiber service including Iowa Fertilizer. Additionally, they serve 31 cell towers.
“The redundancy gives us the ability to serve those cell towers even if we have a fiber cut. We serve those with up to 10G of data service and if we have this ran, that creates that redundancy so even in a bad situation, those towers stay online,” Fencl said.
“This also allows us the ability to cover locations in Green Bay bottoms and also expand into Wever and rural Wever with more locations than we originally talked about.”
The grant now entails $400,000 of ARPA funds to build the resiliency loop with state and private funds making up the rest of the project. The rest of the county money will be spent on running direct fiber cabling to homes in the Wever area.
Supervisor Seyb said he was happy that the project was able to be kept on track and get some expansion in Lee County.
“We’ve experienced the problems associated with inflationary costs, specifically with the Lee County Health Department building, so it shouldn’t be unexpected to see these modifications happening.”