As we visit with area businesses, we continue to hear stories about issues with slow, or dropped internet connectivity issues.
We are asking business owners to please take a minute and send a quick email to County Administrator, Scott Feldt, feldt.scott@kewauneeco.org, County Board Chair, Robert Weidner, weidner.robert@kewauneeco.org, or KCEDC Executive Director Richard Baker, richard.baker@kcedc.org and share your stories.  We can then share those stories with the rest of the County Board.  People can relate to personal stories and our County Board needs to hear the cost of lost business, or employee wages from dropped internet, or delays caused by slow internet speeds.
And let us know if you would be interested in coming to speak during the public comment period at a County Board meeting; it might be great to have 5-8 businesses to come share their experiences and the impact of slow or disruptive internet speeds have on their businesses.
 KCEDC is a part of the County Broadband Study Committee and have also coordinated several meetings with providers outside of those meetings.  In the coming week, the County Broadband Study Committee will be listening to presentations from various providers on what their capabilities are and the services they could provide.  It is the committee’s goal to find a provider or two that the County could partner with to expand and improve the broadband services here in the County.
While never fast enough, I know Counties that have spent nearly a decade trying to improve broadband in their communities,’ said KCEDC Executive Director, Richard Baker. “But they did not have providers willing to participate, nor a County Board willing to put some skin in the game, to make it happen.  I am overly optimistic that we could possibly  see some expansion in  2020.”