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Logan County Board discusses
financing broadband internet project
Delays final vote to April 16th
[April 04, 2025]
On Wednesday, April 2nd, the Logan
County Board met for a special regular meeting. This meeting was
scheduled to take place in the newly renovated third floor courtroom
starting at 6:00 p.m. The elevators were down because of the storm
that had occurred earlier in the day. The meeting was instead moved
to the first floor courtroom.
Almost all members of the board were present for this meeting. In
attendance was Chairman JR Glenn, Kathy Schmidt, Michael DeRoss, Gil
Turner, Bob Sanders, Lance Conahan, Joseph Kuhlman, Keenan Leesman,
Dale Nelson, and Hannah Fitzpatrick. Jim Wessbecher was the only
member not in attendance.
As with the past two regular board
meetings in March, one special and one not, the issues being
discussed by the board were those of insurance for county employees,
specifically those who are non-union, as well as the Logan County
Broadband project. The second of the two issues discussed was the
broadband project.
In the second part of the meeting, Glenn switched the focus of the
meeting to the county broadband project. He stated that the American
Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money that had been moved from the county
broadband project to the Logan County Jail expansion project had put
that project over budget. This being the case, there was a line item
in this year’s budget that was going to take $1.2 million from the
general fund and move it to the county jail expansion project. This
money could instead be marked to be moved to the broadband project.
There is also about $300,000 in interest from a CD that the county
will soon have, and that can be moved to broadband as well. In
addition to these two sources of funding, the rest would be taken
out of the Community Benefit Fund (CBF).
Glenn continued, saying that while some people may disagree with
taking such a large portion of the CBF for this project, broadband
is supposed to bring in money for the county once it is finished and
companies start using it. As of now, the county has an agreement
with WANRack, the company slated to work on the broadband project,
that ten percent of the money they make from the network will be
returned to the county. This, Glenn argued, could be used to refund
the CBF.
It was also stated, however, that
the money from the state grant that Logan County acquired for the
project, $6.8 million, may have to be spent by the end of 2025.
Leesman is going to look into this to see if this is more of a hard
or soft deadline. If this is a hard deadline, the board seemed
certain that they would not be able to spend all of the money before
the state took it back. The broadband project is an eighteen month
project, and this would mean it would have to be finished in less
than eight.
The board also stated that if this is a hard deadline, then the
broadband project would not happen. If this was the case, then they
would move the approximately $2 million that they had set aside for
the project to other projects or funds.
In addition to this, Sanders also
voiced some financial concerns about the broadband project. He
stated that the county is currently working on two other big
projects, those being the courthouse restoration and the county jail
expansion. Sanders also stated that both of these items may go over
budget. In this case, Sanders asked, “where will you get the money?”
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Glenn responded
that the board needs to be better at holding people’s “feet to
the fire” when it comes to sticking with the budget as approved.
Sanders also stated that commitments have already been made to
the other two projects. In addition, no dollar amount has ever
been given as to how much revenue the broadband project will
bring in. Sanders said it could be $100,000 a year or $10
million a year.
Leesman clarified that they currently have an agreement that it
will be ten percent of whatever the project makes. It may start
slow, but Leesman was confident that it would grow over time,
bringing in more revenue. Sanders stated that he has a problem
putting taxpayer money into a private business. He asked about
what would happen if WANRack went “belly up.” Leesman stated
that, in that case, the county could buy the broadband network
for cheap and then own it outright.
DeRoss then voiced support for the project, stating that there
is a need for economic and infrastructure development outside of
Lincoln. He compared this project to getting electricity on
farms in the 1940’s. At the time, DeRoss stated, it was a
luxury. By the 1960’s, however, it was seen as a necessity.
Glenn also voiced support, stating
that, as someone who lives outside of Lincoln, his service went down
yesterday (Tuesday April 1st) and he was unable to make phone calls.
He stated that, if he had had a heart attack in the night, he would
have been unable to get a hold of anyone and there would be a
different person leading the meeting. He also stated that he been to
Chattanooga, Tennessee. They invested in a similar infrastructure
and it has worked out for them. According to the website S&P Global,
Chattanooga is sometimes referred to as the “Silicon Valley of the
South.”
While the board was ready to take a vote on whether or not to move
money around to fund the project, Glenn noticed a problem with the
agenda. The agenda did not have the specific motion on it regarding
what the board was planning to vote on. It was determined that the
board would have to wait until their next meeting on April 16th to
take a vote on this matter. Leesman also stated that, by this time,
he would have a clearer understanding of the deadline issue.
[Matt Boutcher]
04/04/2025 - Logan County Board approves employee insurance plan
with increased contribution by the county
https://archives.lincolndailynews.com/
2025/Apr/04/NEWS/today_COUNTY.shtml
03/28/2025 - Logan County Board will investigate seeking an
extension on Broadband Grant
https://archives.lincolndailynews.com/
2025/Mar/28/NEWS/today_COUNTY.shtml
05/18/2025 - Funding for Logan County Jail project takes a sharp
right turn
https://archives.lincolndailynews.com/
2025/Mar/18/NEWS/today_COUNTY.shtml
05/20/2025 - County Board Disagrees on ARPA Funding - Final vote
goes to the Jail Expansion Project
https://archives.lincolndailynews.com/
2025/Mar/20/NEWS/today_COUNTY.shtml
Source:
https://www.spglobal.com/market-
intelligence/en/news-insights/research/silicon-
valley-of-the-south-chattanooga-offers-low-
latency-compute-for-smart-city-applications
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