County Board urged to support broadband project

It was standing room only last Wednesday night at the Greene County Board meeting as representatives from cities and townships throughout the county as well as businesses and even individuals showed up in support of the proposal from Frontier to bring fiber optic internet to the entire county. Frontier is asking for a $1.1 million commitment from the county to go towards the $93 million dollar project. (Carmen Ensinger/Greene Prairie Press)

By Carmen Ensinger

The meeting room where the Greene County Board holds their monthly meetings at the court house was packed last Wednesday night with officials from cities and townships throughout Greene County in support of the proposed county-wide fiber optic internet project that the county is being asked to invest in.
The $93 million project will bring fiber optic internet and phone lines to every single home and business in Greene County, no matter if they are in a city or country setting. Greene County would be the first county in the state to have such service.
Frontier is hoping to receive grant funding from the state of Illinois in the amount of around $13 million and is asking for a local contribution of $1.1 million. This leaves their investment in the project at around $79 million.
Michael Levin, Regulatory and Community Outreach for Frontier, was at the county board meeting to answer any questions the board might have.
Board Chairman Andrea Schnelten prefaced by saying just about everyone in the county had dealt with Frontier for either their phone or internet service at one time or another. In fact, she still has phone service with them at her home and business and has had less than satisfactory dealings with them regarding their customer service.
“I have some major concerns about your customer service and so I would love to hear your thoughts on customer service in this ‘new Frontier,’” she said. “The reason I think this is important is because if we are going to stamp our names on this as Greene County Board members and really promote this and say this is something that is important and this is the company to do it, then the first thing that is going to happen when someone has a negative experience with customer service is come back on us. I would love to hear your thoughts on how you guys are fixing that so we can feel confident that the members of the community are going to have a positive experience with customer service.”
Levin said he absolutely understands those issues and concerns about customer service.
“Frontier is really a new service – we are a newly formed company with a new CEO and new leadership at the helm,” he said. “We have eliminated $10 billion worth of debt off the books and going through that process and working through all those things, we were able to strategize and develop new things that will take this company into the future and one of those things is having that good customer service. Because if we don’t have that, then who are we.”
Levin said that Frontier is currently in 25 states and that they are in the process of replacing old copper lines, like is currently in Greene, in those states as well.
“Much of Greene County is still running on these old copper phone lines and they do cause service issues,” he said. “But within this new structure that we have now, where we are going in and replacing those lines with fiber optic, we know that our credibility has actually risen quite a bit. We see that happening in county after county in the Midwest.”
Levin said as they move away from the copper phone lines, the problems will disappear. But until that happens, they still have customers to deal with.
“What Frontier has done is to try to categorize a lot of these concerns in one area,” he said. “We are trying to help even more by bringing on more technicians, but again, like a lot of other businesses, we are having issues hiring individuals with qualifications, who can pass a drug test who can do those things. It has been difficult, but we are doing better.”
In the realm of things, $1.1 million is a miniscule amount of a $93 million project, approximately 1.2 percent if you are doing the math. So why is it important for Greene County to invest in the project?
Levin said the partnership will help them receive the grant money plus they also want to know that the county is invested in the project.
“Not only does the State of Illinois want to see that partnership, we actually enjoy that partnership as well,” he said. “Because we believe that it is much better when it works that way. You have been very proactive in wanting to expand your broadband service and you believe that it is vital and essential in everything that you do. To have the partnership with the Economic Development Group and the County means everything to us at Frontier and so to get that partnership and those dollars from all of you is highly meaningful.”
Pat Pinkston, a member of the broadband group, explained to the board that the $1.1 million didn’t have to be raised all at once.
“To give you an idea of how this is set up, 10 percent of that is due when they start installation,” Pinkston said. “When I say installation, I mean when someone puts a shovel in the ground and starts the project. The next 40 percent is due when 50 percent of the project is complete.
“We have been very clear about what that completion means. It means that people can hook up to it and use it. So, there is a very clear definition of that. The last 50 percent is due at the termination of the entire project.”
There is a definite definition of completion as well.
“They must be in compliance with the permit from the utility company and the Road Use Agreement that would be in place that we have worked with them to create,” Pinkston said. “We took the Road Use Agreement you had and modified it to include additional terms required for this kind of project so in order for the last portion of the money to be due, all of these conditions must be met.”
Frontier is willing to write the grant to the State of Illinois for the funding on behalf of the county at no cost, but time is of the essence. The grant is due at the end of January.
“If the grant is approved and we have the commitment for the $1.1 million, then they would start the project sometime this summer or early fall,” Pinkston said. “They have committed to having the project completed in two years. So that gives you probably 10 percent due in 2023, 40 percent due in 2024 and the remainder due in 2025.”
The board took no board on the request for funding.