By LeAnn R. Ralph
HUDSON — The first step in making sure that all residents in St. Croix County have access to high-speed broadband fiber optic internet is to know where the service currently is and is not available.
The St. Croix County Board approved a budget amendment for the 2023 budget to map broadband throughout the county at the June 6 county board meeting.
The total cost of the broadband mapping will be $53,275, with $18,000 from the Federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program (BEAD) and $35,000 from the county’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, said Ken Witt, county administrator.
The BEAD program provides $42.45 billion to expand high-speed Internet access by funding for planning, infrastructure construction and adoption programs.
To proceed with broadband, St. Croix County needs accurate maps to know where the access is, said Ryan Sherley, county board supervisor from the City of New Richmond.
Having accurate maps of where the access is now will help the county in obtaining additional BEAD funding, he said.
Sherley said he recently was out of telephone and Internet service for five days because the line had been cut and that if accurate maps had been available, perhaps the situation might have been avoided.
The mapping will identify every household in St. Croix County that does and does not have broadband, he said.
One of the county’s ARPA projects is $155,000 under budget, so there are still unallocated ARPA dollars that can be used with the BEAD funding for the mapping project, Witt said.
The budget amendment required a two-thirds vote from the St. Croix County Board.
One county board member voted against the motion, Mike Barcalow, county board supervisor representing the Towns of Hammond and Rush River and the Village of Hammond.
Carah Koch, county board supervisor from Hudson, abstained.
