The way is being prepared for continued expansion of fiber optic internet service and other broadband expansion efforts in Oconto County.
On Dec. 19, the county board authorized a $360,000 fund for deployment of broadband infrastructure to provide high-speed internet for all, to provide a required 25% of matching funds for any grants obtained through the federally funded Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program.
The county board also approved County Administrator Richard Heath’s appointments to the local BEAD Planning Task Force: County Supervisors David Behrend, Michael Beyer, Dennis Kroll and David Van Zeeland, along with Oconto Falls City Administrator Peter Wills and Jayme Sellen, executive director of the Tourism and Economic Development Corporation for the Oconto Region (TEDCOR).
During her monthly report to the board, Sellen said the task force — which was formed in 2023 — reviewed underserved and unserved areas of Oconto County that are available for funding under the BEAD Program.
“Underserved” areas have available internet speed of 25-100 Mbps, and areas with fewer than 25 Mbps are considered “unserved,” Sellen said.
The task force is recommending incentives for internet service providers (ISPs) to extend fiber for each unserved location within these project units, she said. There are five focus areas where there’s a high amount of unserved and underserved customers to get Oconto County covered for high quality internet services, mostly in the northern part of the county, Sellen said.
Heath said the estimate is that there are 2,180 unserved and 1,137 underserved customers in those five focus areas.
“We don’t anticipate any of the money coming out until 2026,” Heath said. “But when we start looking at the ISPs that will be coming to us that want to serve our area, they’re going to want to know that there’s some money here locally — in addition to the state grant, or the federal grant that’s coming to the state — to serve these locations.”
County Board Chairman Al Sleeter said getting fiber optics throughout the county is a priority.
“At this time, there’s a lot of state and federal funding coming forth for this,” Sleeter said. “I was the one who suggested we bring this resolution forward, knowing full well that it’s probably going to be a three- or four-year span by the time this gets done.”
The local money would come from the county’s Unreserved General Fund, Heath said.
Supervisor Guy Gooding asked what’s the current unreserved balance of the general fund, and finance director Lisa Sherman estimated $5 million to $6 million.
The resolution passed on a unanimous roll call vote.
wbluhm@newmedia-wi.com
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