Dunn County adds $100,000 for broadband grant support
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The Dunn County Board has approved adding $100,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to support broadband grant applications by internet service providers to expand access to broadband in Dunn County.
Dunn County committed $100,000 for the broadband grants last year, but only two grants were received by the ISPs, leaving $60,000 from last year, said Kristin Korpela, county manager, at the Dunn County Board’s February 15 meeting.
Adding another $100,000 would make $160,000 available in ARPA money for the ISPs in their grant applications this year to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, she said.
Two previous rounds of grant applications made $200 million available all together in ARPA funds for broadband Internet access grants in the state.
This time around, only $14 million will be available statewide, Korpela said.
Dunn County received $8.8 million in ARPA funds from the federal government, and the money is currently earning $30,000 per month in interest, she said.
The additional $100,000 for broadband would come from the interest money, Korpela said.
The deadline for the grant applications was February 22, according to background information included with the resolution.
Mosaic Technologies (formerly known as Chibardun Telephone), Bloomer Telephone and 24-7 Telecom are planning to apply for additional grants, she said, noting that Nextgen Broadband may also be applying to the PSC for grant money.
If all of the grants in this round of applications are awarded, an additional 300 households in Dunn County would have broadband Internet service, Korpela said.
Money committed by municipalities — towns, villages, cities or counties — helps the grant applications score higher, said Jim Zons, county board supervisor from Colfax and chair of the Dunn County Community Resources and Tourism Committee.
Larry Bjork, county board supervisor from Menomonie, said he wished there were more transparency in the grant application process so that the county board is aware of the number of households served, the cost per household or the cost per mile.
The grant applications sent to the PSC do contain information about the number of households and the cost per household and per mile, Korpela said.
The Dunn County Board unanimously approved the resolution to make an additional $100,000 available in APRA money available to ISPs for broadband grants.
Other business
In other business, the Dunn County Board:
Approved budget adjustments to account for grants received in the amount of $166,577 for the Criminal Justice Collaborating Council and $4,578 and $4,516 for the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department for grants from the Department of Justice and from local sources for body cameras.
Approved a budget adjustment for the 2023 county budget to align the proper amounts for revenues and expenditures for administration, highway, bridge petitions, The Neighbors, the transit commission and self-funded health insurance. The adjustment does not change the budget total. The error occurred in the printed budget when the lines ended up mismatched, said Dr. Beata Haug, Dunn County’s chief financial officer. For example, under revenues, bridge petitions were listed at $14.66 million while The Neighbors was listed at $50,000, when the bridge petitions should have been $50,000, and The Neighbors should have been $14.99 million.
Approved changing the veterans specialist pay grade from J to Pay Grade K. The gross annual wage impact is $665.60.
