By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The Dunn County Community Resources and Tourism Committee is working on plans to hold a broadband workshop with the West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission and UW-Extension.
The West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission is offering to piece together a half-day workshop that includes many elements of the state summit on broadband, said Tom Quinn, county board supervisor from Downing, a member of the CRT committee and a representative for Dunn County with the West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, at a meeting of the CRT committee October 11.
The workshop could be in person, virtual or a combination, and WCWRPC will organize the workshop and provide staff support, he said.
The workshop would include key stakeholders and would identify opportunities for getting broadband Internet access to areas of the county that need it and also would identify ways to move forward, Quinn said.
The workshop would provide a way to be more collaborative and efficient in the efforts to get broadband access for county residents, he said.
UW-Extension has done something similar in other counties and has worked with Mosaic Telcom, for example, Quinn said.
James Anderson, county board supervisor from Menomonie and chair of the CRT committee, suggested a meeting with Addison Vang of UW-Extension and Chris Straight from WCWRPC to get a plan together to move forward with the summit.
Vang worked for Dunn County a number of years ago when the county implemented a study to figure out where broadband was and was not available in the county.
Ann Vogl, county board supervisor from Menomonie and a member of the CRT committee, asked if Regional Planning had invited the Internet service providers to a workshop in Clark County.
Quinn said he believed the ISPs were included in the Clark County workshop.
The school districts in Dunn County and UW-Stout should be included as stakeholders, too, Vogl said.
Community advocates should be identified as well, Quinn said.
Each community probably has one or more people who are committed to the idea of broadband expansion and want to put their energy toward it but do not know the next step to take, he said.
The community advocates should be identified and then brought into the process, Quinn said.
Anderson asked if Vogl and Quinn would be willing to discuss the workshop with UW-Extension and WCWRPC and bring the information back to the CRT committee.
Quinn said he would be willing to be a point person with WCWRPC and would be ready to come back to the CRT meeting with a more developed plan.
The workshop could be pulled together on relatively short notice, he said.
Approval of the broadband workshop is expected to be part of the agenda for the next Community Resources and Tourism Committee meeting on November 8.
