DC Community Resource and Tourism Committee considering broadband grant application process
By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The Dunn County Community Resources and Tourism Committee is considering an application form that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) could use to apply for county financial support on broadband grant applications to the state.
The application form is for entities asking for Dunn County support either in the form of letters of support or financial support, said Paul Miller, county manager, at the January 10 meeting of the Community Resources and Tourism committee.
The financial support could be either American Recovery Plan Act funds (ARPA) or tax levy, he said.
If the ISP is seeking a letter of recommendation or support, the application form would authorize the Dunn County Board chair to write the letter, and if the ISP is seeking financial support, it would be up to the Community Resources and Tourism committee to approve the amount requested, a different amount or no money at all, Miller said.
One township has asked for some of Dunn County’s ARPA money for broadband expansion but provided very little detail, he said.
State grants
The state of Wisconsin has made $200 million in federal funds available as grants for the expansion of broadband Internet access. The first round of $100 million in broadband grants was awarded last fall, and another $100 million is available now with a grant application deadline of March 17.
The grants are administered through the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin.
For the first round of $100 million available last year, the PSC received requests for $400 million.
All together, Dunn County will be receiving $8.8 million in ARPA funds. The federal government distributed the first half of the money last year and will distribute the second half this year.
Out of the first round of ARPA money, the Dunn County Board has approved using $3.2 million for highway projects.
Cities, townships and villages also have received ARPA money. The amount awarded to each municipality is based on population.
Two ISPs that provide service in Dunn County — 24-7 Telcom and Mosaic Technologies (formerly known as Chibardun) — received grant awards in the first round of funding last fall to expand fiber optic Internet access.
24-Telcom received grants in Dunn County for projects in the Towns of Elk Mound, Lucas, Menomonie, Red Cedar, Stanton, Spring Brook, Tainter, and Weston, and Mosaic received a grant for the Town of Otter Creek.
Early guidance was that the ARPA money could be used by townships for sewer, water or broadband, and since townships in this part of Wisconsin do not have sewer and water utilities, many townships decided to put the money toward broadband access.
The projects designed by 24-7 Telcom and Mosaic will be funded by grant money, company money and the ARPA funds from the townships.
The projects that have received funding through the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin tended to be partnerships between a local unit of government, such as a town or a county, and a cooperative or a small company.
24-7 Telcom and Mosaic are both cooperatives.
Other financial support can also be used on the grant applications. For example, the Town of Otter Creek waived the permit fees for Mosaic to plow fiber optic cable in the township’s right-of-way.
Officials from the ISPs had hoped Dunn County would be willing to allocate some of the county’s ARPA money for the first round of grant applications that were awarded last fall.
Detail
Miller said the application he put together for ISPs to request funds from Dunn County asks for a variety of detail, such as the scope and scale of the project, the location, the number of businesses and residences that would be served, when the project will be constructed, the cost of the project, the amount requested from Dunn County and what happens if Dunn County does not fund the request.
Members of the Community Resources and Tourism committee should review the application form to see if there are more questions that need to be answered or whether there is more information that should be included, he said.
The application is not limited to ARPA funds and could include tax levy or any other federal or state money that is available, Miller said.
The application is intended to be used now and also in the future, he noted.
Jim Anderson, county board supervisor from Menomonie and chair of the CRT committee, said he had received calls from townships about matching funds from the county.
During a recent broadband workshop with the West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, other opportunities that will be coming up also were discussed, said Tom Quinn, county board supervisor from Downing and a member of the CRT committee.
At the workshop, town officials talked about the matching funds they had provided and the applications from the ISPs, he said.
The applications the ISPs submit to the state contain a large amount of information. The application from 24-7 Telcom for the Town of Elk Mound, for example, is 28 pages and includes maps of the project area, he said.
Much of the information that would be included in the application for support from Dunn County is already in the ISP state grant applications, Quinn said, noting that many of the townships put all of their ARPA money toward broadband expansion.
The Town of Elk Mound will receive $186,000 all together in ARPA money that the town board has committed to broadband expansion.
Dunn County will receive a significant expansion of fiber optic Internet access based on the grants already awarded, Quinn said.
If Dunn County is going to consider providing any matching funds for the next grant applications that are due March 17, the CRT committee and the county board would have to make a decision fairly soon on the application process, he said.
On the other hand, Quinn said he did not know if any of the ISPs are planning to apply for grants this time around.
Budget
A decision was just issued that counties can use all of their ARPA funds for capital improvements, general fund expenditures, highway projects, for just about anything, Bartlett said.
If Dunn County is going to use $1 million of the ARPA funds on broadband, then the county must be upfront with the taxpayers, he said.
The ARPA funds can help with the county’s budget problems, but broadband also is a matter of economic development, Anderson said.
“I do not like the idea of balancing the budget with ARPA funds,” he said.
Deciding how to spend the ARPA money when the county is facing budget pressure “is a tough decision,” Quinn said.
The decision to use ARPA money for high-speed Internet access would have to be made by February for the next round of grant applications, he said.
It’s a “timing issue,” Miller said.
The remaining $5.6 million of ARPA money must be spent by 2024, he said.
The Dunn County Board will be meeting in March to discuss the capital improvement plan and whether to use ARPA money on capital improvements. By the time of the March meeting, it would be too late for allocating county money for broadband for the grant applications that are due March 17, Miller said, adding, “It’s a Catch-22.”
Dunn County has not received any formal requests from the ISPs, so it is difficult to know how dependent the ISPs would be on funding from the county, Quinn said.
A representative for 24-7 Telcom attended a CRT meeting in November or December requesting matching funds, Anderson said.
“Is that not a formal request?” he asked.
“No,” Miller replied, adding that the 24-7 Telcom presentation did not focus on specific projects but was asking for money as a general request.
Capital improvement plan
ARPA money can be used for everything, Bartlett said.
The capital improvement plan involves borrowing $3 million per year to fund capital improvements, he said, adding that he “did not like the bubble coming up” in the tax levy in 2026 associated with the borrowing plan.
Using ARPA money for capital improvements might allow the county to hold off for a year on borrowing another $3 million, so county officials should wait until the capital improvement plan meeting in March to decide on “where to go in the future,” Bartlett said.
What is the plan of action? Where does the CRT committee want to go from here? Anderson asked.
Bartlett suggested putting the ISP application process on the agenda for the next CRT meeting in February.
Even having a streamlined procedure for ISPs to ask for letters of support would help, he said.
Anderson said he would put the item on the agenda for the February meeting of the Community, Resources and Tourism committee, and that in the meantime, he would contact CRT members Larry Bjork and Ann Vogl, both of whom did not attend the January 10 meeting, to make sure they are aware of the proposed application process so they can review the information Miller submitted to the committee.
The Dunn County Community Resources and Tourism Committee meets next on February 14.
