Factories close – municipal electric utility steps in

Princeton, Illinois has received national attention with its high-speed Internet service using electrical lines. Princeton is a historic town of about 8,000 that looks much the way it did 100 years ago. Its brick streets and many historic homes remain unchanged.

What is changing is the technology being used to attract industrial development. In August 2003, the town's largest electric customer and largest employer moved out of town and took 450 jobs. Two months later, the second biggest employer was considering leaving due to a lack of communication services.

When asking about high-speed communication services, Princeton received the same answer many small, rural communities get from the traditional telephone and cable companies, they are simply too small to serve. Knowing more jobs would leave and it would be harder and harder to attract new employers Princeton decided to take matters into its own hands.

Since Princeton already had their own electric utility, it could test Broadband Over Powerline (BPL) technologies. The electric line connections get their Internet signals from a 12-mile loop of fiber installed by the city of Princeton. Typical of so many areas, once Princeton invested in the fiber loop suddenly the local cable and phone operators upgraded their systems and cut service rates. The competition will benefit residents and businesses that now have three providers to choose from for high-speed Internet service.

As Princeton moves from the test phase to offering full service other communities across the state and nation are watching with interest. The lessons Princeton has learned so far are that elected officials need to support a project 100% in order for it to be successful and that rural areas have a high demand and need for affordable, high-speed Internet access.

For More Information:

Contact: Jason Bird, Superintendent of Electric and Telecommunications
Phone: 815-875-1231
Email: jbird@princeton-il.com

Increasing use and adoption of information technology

• Volunteers can make a difference
• Every community can improve use of technology
• Celebrate every success

Potter County, Pennsylvania encompasses 1092 square miles and about 50% of the land is state owned with State Parks, State Game Lands, State Forrest Trails and Fish Commission Land.

The county is made up of small "pods" of population separated by state land and rough terrain. It is said there are more deer and bears than people in Potter County.

The Potter County Community Network project is designed to increase the diffusion and adoption of information technology in Potter County. The project is led by volunteers representing K-12 education, higher education, business and government.

In 1998, project partners led by the Potter County Education Council began providing computer classes, mostly basic classes focusing on the Microsoft Office suite of programs. In the past 3 or 4 years more advanced classes have been offered including the A+ programming language. Project partners are working with local school districts to make the training available across the county. Since the program began, 400-500 classes have been offered and more than 3,000 people have participated. They recently added McKean County to the programs.

A MTAP (Municipal Technical Assistance Program) grant helped to fund Microsoft Office training for about 50% of municipal employees. Potter County has surpassed 5 other surrounding counties in the number of employees who have had computer training.

Courses teaching FrontPage have also been important to help local businesses understand the importance web sites have for online visibility. Open hours in schools have made it possible for residents who do not have a computer or an internet connection to go online.

One of the outcomes of the project is increased awareness of information technology and broadband among local government, business and community members. The business community is 95% mom and pop establishments and currently almost all of them see the importance of web presence and how essential high-speed networks are to compete in today's marketplace.

This project has been successful because everyone involved understood the importance of increasing the adoption and use of information technology and shared a sense of urgency about bringing the county up to speed. Any time wasted in making broadband available was only going to hurt community members in the long run. It was the need and urgency that made everyone involved understand the need to work together to get anything done.

It is important for everyone involved to leave egos and negativity at the door. The leadership team needs to collaborate and focus on working with those who understand the goals. Don't waste time or energy on naysayers, they will eventually join.

Rural areas shouldn't wait for help to come to them. They need to reach out for help. Towns that don't have strong local leadership acting as a champion to encourage the adoption of information technology and broadband do not provide an incentive for investment and will be left behind. It is also important for the leadership team to have fun and celebrate successes.

For More Information:

http://www.pottercountyedcouncil.org/
Contact: Helene Nawrocki, Executive Director, Potter County Education Council
Email: helene@pottercountyedcouncil.org

Tornado turns to Technology

• 1998 tornado caused extensive damage
• Decided to rebuild with underground utilities including fiber
• Local vision and leadership
• Competition benefits consumers

Saint Peter, Minnesota is a community of approximately 10,000 that suffered a devastating tornado in 1998 that severely damaged much of the city. As Saint Peter was rebuilding FEMA decided to pay for all wired utilities to be placed underground. At the time, the city was forward thinking enough to decide to put fiber conduit underground and saved hundreds of thousands of dollars. It took five years to rebuild after the tornado and in 2003 Internet services delivered over fiber began.

This project was funded by borrowing from the municipal electric utility. One of the main lessons learned is that leaders need to communicate a consistent message to citizens and keep communicating throughout the process of implementing the project. Saint Peter was able to keep the trust of the community during the rebuilding process.

For More Information:

http://www.saintpetermn.gov and http://www.saintpeteradvantage.com/
Contact: Todd Prafke, City Administrator, City of Saint Peter
Phone: 507-934-0663
Email: barbaral@saintpetermn.gov

Investing in a fiber network is investing in the future

• Communities need to be healthy for business to succeed
• Small communities need to invest in themselves because traditional broadband providers will always overlook smaller communities
• Communities can't sit and wait for help

Columbus, Kansas is a small town of approximately 3,370 residents located in southeast Kansas. At a first glance, Columbus may seem to be just like any other small town that is trying to attract new business and residents as well as retain their current population. Columbus is not unique in its struggle to find successful community economic development polices.

What makes Columbus unique is that the entire town is served by a fiber optic network that provides voice, video, and high-speed data to residential and commercial users in the community.

Columbus has a member-owned telephone cooperative and recognized the need to upgrade the old copper facilities. As the co-op was considering which technology made the most sense for their upgrade they considered hybrid fiber coax that would have met their initial goals to become an Internet service provider capable of offering higher speed service. However, the telephone cooperative realized that the economic success of their community depended on the ability to offer high-speed Internet access at competitive prices. The cooperative decided to replace the entire network with fiber optics, justifying the expense as a necessary investment in the future of their community.

The project began in January 2004 and took about 24 months to complete. The telephone cooperative is focused on economic development and has started "operation back home again" which is trying to draw young professionals who grew up in the region back to the area by offering affordable living, broadband access and a reasonable commute to more urban areas. The community continues to look for opportunities to attract e-businesses to local incubator space. They offer several hundred square feet of manufacturing space with fiber to the door. Columbus believes that investing in the fiber network was investing in the future and that once people and business start returning to Columbus more retail and service investments will follow.

For More Information:

http://www.columbus-ks.com
Contact: Jim Dahmen, General Manager, Columbus Telephone Company
Phone: 620-429-3132

Fiber can save $$$

• A fiber ring initially connected 4 county schools
• County schools are saving $140,000 a year after all expenses
• Connected courthouse & jail to use for video arraignment and telemedicine for additional savings

Pickens County, Alabama is a poor rural county with a total population of less than 23,000. None of the towns in the county has more than 3,500 residents.

The school superintendent had a vision of a digital future and contacted the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA). A representative from ADECA worked with the superintendent. They heard that the local cable company was going to upgrade its system to fiber in order to eliminate 3 of their 4 cable headends. They negotiated with the cable company to extend the fiber to the schools for a reasonable monthly fee. With the schools connected the county was able to offer courses they previously couldn't afford.

For example, none of the schools had the resources to hire foreign language teachers. With the fiber network and full motion video equipment, they were able to hire one teacher who teaches to all 4 schools at the same time. Distance learning has saved the school district $140,000 a year after all expenses for equipment.

Recently the county also connected the courthouse and jail to offer video arraignment capabilities. They expect this will save the county the expense of transporting inmates. They can also use this system for telemedicine to also reduce expenses transporting inmates to medical facilities. This program has not been running for an entire year so they don't have exact numbers for savings.

The county is also taking advantage of broadband for economic development.

The Pickens County Medical Center is working with the medical center in neighboring Fayette County to connect via fiber to the regional hospital in Tuscaloosa. This would offer both of the rural medical centers advantages of full motion video and tremendous opportunities through telemedicine.

For More Information:

Contact: Ned Butler, State Radio Plans Director Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs
Phone: 334-424-5474
Email: nedb@adeca.state.al.us

Small town takes matters into their own hands

• City council willing to invest in technology
• Wireless is an affordable solution for many communities

Buffalo, Minnesota is located about 40 miles northwest of Minneapolis/St. Paul and is a rapidly growing city of about 15,000.

Buffalo did not set out to provide high-speed Internet services to the community. Originally the city was concerned with internal data transmission between local government offices. Before the city thought about creating its own network, the city invited the local telephone and companies to provide services. Like many small communities they were told they were too small to provide a return on investment and were not even on the radar. The city went to the state public utility commission and became registered to be an Internet Service Provider.

The city administrator, city council, a few IT people, some local bankers, and the local schools provided leadership for the project. Each of the people involved in the technology committee realized the importance of high-speed Internet access and had the vision to set their goals to create carrier class entity.

They believe their success has been, in part, because they spent the money to do things right from the beginning and had the support of the community.

For More Information:

http://www.bwig.net/ and http://www.ci.buffalo.mn.us/
Contact: Merton Auger, City Administrator
Phone: 763-684-5406
Email: merton.auger@ci.buffalo.mn.us

This project is a bit different from the other ones mentioned in the Connecting Rural Communities guide for two reasons. First, it did not involve a particular technology but rather focused on needs assessments and aggregation of demand. It is also unique to the other case studies because it involves three counties working together. The counties are Chemung, Schuyler and Stueben which make up the Southern Tier region of New York State.

This region has pockets of population concentration but is mostly rural and broadband is not available to most homes or businesses. In 2003 the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) held a workshop and invited representatives from health, education, government and business for the three counties to discuss aggregation for demand possibilities for the three counties. After the workshop it was decided that the region needed money to conduct a study to see what was available and where potential for aggregation existed. They received a grant from the state senator and ARC in 2004 to hire a consultant.

A consultant was hired to measure all existing fiber, cell towers and work with service providers to determine what was available. Next, the consultant held focus groups to see what was needed. One of the ways the region has been able to use this information is to negotiate better service and price from the providers. The survey demonstrated that the area may have enough resources to leverage rather than undertaking the expense of building a new network. This is a good example of how communities can work together to find low cost solutions rather than several small areas trying to build new networks or reinventing the wheel.

When this process started the only broadband option for the community was offered through the cable provider. Since then the incumbent local exchange carrier also gave some money to do a diffusion study. They found that one phone company was overcharging and had to put money back into the communities. This was used to provide high speed service to the school districts, hospitals and local government offices.

One of the many lessons learned in this project is that communities need perseverance. These projects can be frustrating but are worth while and once people recognize the benefits they want to help. Another outcome of the project is that GIS maps from the study can be used to show where business development and infrastructure development can happen and encourage economic development.

For More Information:

Contact: Marsha Weber, Executive Director
Southern Tier Central Regional Planning Development Board
Phone: 607-962-5092
Email: weber@stny.rr.com

Apply for grants; all funding sources help

Forks, Washington is a rural community of 5000 including the outskirts of town. Located on the peninsula, Forks is remote the closest town large enough to have a movie theatre is a 90 minute drive and Seattle is 4 hours away.

Forks High School was the first rural school to receive a High Tech High Grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The money was used to improve broadband service at the school and the technology was DSL simply because that was the only broadband option for this remote area. The funds have also supplied computers in every classroom and library.

The grant began in 2002 and was set up to provide funding for four years. Some of the lessons learned are that buy in from community members and key leaders is critical ahead of time. When the community learned their school district was the recipient of the grant they were very excited but it has been difficult to maintain the excitement and interest over time. Other lessons learned are that attitude is just as important as hardware. Simply adding boxes and wires does not mean a community or a school will instantly change. A desire to learn is just as essential as the connections and hardware.

The Mentoring Project

A mentoring program was set up for students in 4th through 8th grades. The students targeted are facing an academic risk of failure. Due to economic downturns in logging and fishing industries many of the students also live in high poverty. The local economy is starting to improve as they shift their focus towards tourism. This project is a partnership between the school district and a non-profit community organization that began in 2004. The goal is to have 30 mentors in 3 years. One of the biggest challenges for this program is finding enough adults who would like to mentor students. The mentoring brings community members to the school and increased communication and understanding benefits everyone.

One unintended consequence is that many mentors are finding they can learn a lot from the students especially regarding technology. The staff and mentors have participated in online courses and training. This unique project shows that not every community project has to focus on technology and that the more different groups work together the greater benefits for the community.

For More Information:

http://www.forks.wednet.edu/
Contact: Dave Demiglio, Director of Connecting Schools and Communities
Quillayute Valley School District
P.O. Box 60
Forks, WA 98331
Phone: 360-374-6262 ext. 229
Email: demiglio@esd114.wednet.edu

For More Information about the Mentoring Project:

http://www.connectingschools.org/
Contact: Kathy Lebuis, Program Director/Mentoring Coordinator
voice: (360) 374-6262 ext. 221
fax: (360) 374-9657
email: klebuis@esd114.wednet.edu

(BCCB (http://www.youtube.com/user/WIBroadband1/videos)
This is a great link to youtube case studies covering community based projects to improve broadband access and adoption.