Commissioners hear request to use expected relief money to expand internet service here

Ozark Wifi co-owner Mike Gardner attended this week’s Ozark County Commissioners meeting to ask the county to consider using money the county expects to receive from the newest round of coronavirus relief, the American Rescue Plan, to help fund the construction of air-internet “towers” that would help expand internet service into rural Ozark County.

“Through this new coronavirus stimulus package that came out a week or so ago, way back in it some place, there’s money that’s going to be sent to each city and county in the United States. It’s based off population and unemployment, and some complicated formula that I don’t know yet, but it seems like [for Ozark County] it’s going to be about the same amount of money that we got last time through the CARES Act,” Presiding Commissioner John Turner said at the meeting. “Whenever we get the money, we’ll probably sit on it for quite some time because they say it may be two to three months or longer before they come out with a set of rules on exactly how this [money] can be spent.”

Turner said he’d already had a “very preliminary” discussion with 155th Missouri House District Rep. Travis Smith about the funding, and Smith brought up the idea of using some of the money for expanding internet service in the area. 

“I haven’t studied on it. He said he’d done some studying on it, and he thought it was a good endeavor,” Turner said. “But Mike [Gardner] is here too and has some thoughts on it.”

Half a million dollars

Gardner, who owns Ozarks wifi with business partner Jerry Carter, told the commissioners that he’s been in contact with Smith as well as Missouri 33rd District Sen. Karla Eslinger and contacts from the Missouri governor’s office, who are all interested in helping solve the issue of unreliable, and sometimes nonexistent, internet options in many rural areas here. 

Gardner said he had personally put a significant chunk of money into the Ozark Wifi business to help build the infrastructure needed to create a “wireless internet service provider,” sometimes referred to as WISP, to rural areas of Ozark and nearby counties. 

The WISP uses a main access point to project internet service through the air to homes, businesses and farms. Each receiver is typically within 10 miles and has a line-of-sight connection with the access point. The internet service is sent through airwaves and doesn’t require a phone line or other cable lines that are run underground. 

Gardner said he’s been funding the construction of the tower access points from his own bank account as well as profit from the business. 

“We’ve got $300,000 in it now, and it’ll be about a half a million by summer. I just keep taking all the money out and putting it back into the business. Me and [my wife] Heather haven’t taken any money out for a paycheck in two years. We’re just trying to build it up at this point,” Gardner said.

The need for reliable, affordable internet is big in Ozark County, he said, and they’re trying to fill that need with a locally owned business. 

“We’ve been talking with [the man] who is over all the internet in Missouri, and we’re working with some other stuff that’s coming down the pipeline. In the past they’ve sent money to big companies who are supposed to bring internet to rural areas, but they take off to Hollister or Branson and put internet in there and keep leaving us out over here,” Gardner said. 

Gardner said the construction of the towers is pricey for a single business to undertake, but he’s been putting towers up around the county as he’s financially able to.

“We have plans for one over here on FF Highway. We’re getting ready to sign a lease on that property near Zanoni, right up on top of the hill. Then we’re working on Pontiac, getting ready to put one in there. And Howards Ridge, and then we’ve got a spot over there on Glade Top, which is going to beam down the other direction. So, that way, when we go and try to hook people up, when the trees are too much in the way, we can get them from a different angle.”

Gardner says the company has also purchased some “digger bucket trucks” that allow workers to install poles as high as 65 to 70 feet in the air to project the internet service into tricky areas. 

A growing need

In such a technologically advanced world, Gardner said the need for reliable internet service in Ozark County is only growing.

“We’re trying to give quality internet here. We’re building towers [and] getting them around. We’re covered up. We’ve got hundreds of people waiting to get hooked up, and we’ve got a few hundred people already hooked up,” he said.

The need has been kicked up a notch since the beginning of the pandemic, when many residents transitioned to a more internet-based work and home life. 

“We have people trying to do schoolwork with their kids, and we have people trying to make money. We had one customer who said she was going to have to go get a different job and drive 20 miles to work because she didn’t have the ability to get internet access,” he said. “But she said if we could get her internet, she had a job making $60,000. There are a whole bunch of people like that, just trying to work from home,” he said, adding that the lack of internet access has also caused some people to turn away from relocating here. 

“You have people wanting to buy property but can’t. If they can’t get internet, they can’t live here,” he said. 

He told the commissioners that one man from West Plains contacted him and offered him $250,000 to find a way to get internet service to his nearly 40 plots of land near Mammoth Springs, Arkansas.

“He’s selling his lots for $100,000 a piece, and he lost two sales in a matter of a few weeks because they didn’t have internet,” he said. “We ended up figuring out how to get him on the list for fiber [optic internet], but he was willing to pay that much money because he said he was losing all his sales. So it’s very important to people.”

Gardner said in a perfect world, they’d be able to run fiber optic cable under the ground to provide fiber internet to each household in Ozark County, but he says that option is likely out of reach for any company now.

“When I was talking with the man who is over the state’s internet, we’d discussed fiber. He said it’d cost about $15,000 to $18,000 per house to run it. And with things going up [in cost] the way they are now, I figure that number would probably be up to $20,000 to $22,000 per house now,” Gardner said. “So the numbers just aren’t there. You’ll never get a return on it at that level. So, we’re shooting air fiber, or air internet; I think it’s the best option we’ve got here. And if we can provide that widespread, quality service from a local company, I think it’ll bring a lot of revenue into the county, and that’ll help us out again in the long run. And we’ll also be hiring people, getting more help….”

A response

“We think it’s a great idea,” Turner said. “I don’t know how we’ll be able to help you, or if we can help you at this point. We don’t know what’s legal [to use the money on], and what the strings are going to be….”

“That’s understandable,” Gardner responded. “But if it’s legal and you’re able to, I’d like you to consider it.” 

“We appreciate your work here in the county. We know it goes above making money. You’re really trying to help people here,” Turner said.

“Like I said, we haven’t taken any money out in two years. We’re trying to build up the infrastructure. It’s costing me a lot, and it’s kind of scary,” Gardner said. 

“Well, I always say a man needs to get paid or he can’t keep doing it,” Turner said. “But at this point, we just don’t know. It’s going to be months before they send the paperwork that lays out all the fine print. So we’ll just have to see.”

The American Rescue Plan Act

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the latest covid relief package provides “$1.9 trillion in mandatory funding, program changes and policies aimed at mitigating the continuing effects of the pandemic.”

Of that amount, $350 billion has been designated to help states, counties, cities and tribal governments cover increased expenditures, replenish lost revenue and mitigate economic harm from the covid-19 pandemic. 

Local governments, including cities and counties, are to receive $130.2 billion. It is unclear at this point how much Ozark County and the municipalities within the county will receive. 

“State and local government recipients could use the funds to cover costs incurred by Dec. 31, 2024. The funds would be distributed in two tranches, with 50% delivered no later than 60 days from the date of enactment, and the remainder delivered no earlier than one year later,” the ncsl.org website explains. 

“States would have to distribute funds to smaller towns within 30 days of receiving a payment from the department… a town cannot receive more than 75% of its budget as of Jan. 27, 2020. The Treasury Department could also withhold up to half of a state or territory’s allocation for as long as 12 months based on its unemployment rate and require an updated certification of its funding needs,” the website says

But can the money be used to help with internet infrastructure? 

There isn’t a definite answer yet, the commissioners say, but the NCSL summary does hint that it may be a viable use of the funds. 

Among the allowable uses of funds, the NCSL website says that local governments may use the funds to “make investments in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure.”

Other uses would let receiving entities “respond to the COVID-19 emergency and address its economic effects, including through aid to households, small businesses, nonprofits, and industries such as tourism and hospitality…. Provide premium pay to essential employees or grants to their employers. Premium pay couldn’t exceed $13 per hour or $25,000 per worker.” Another use could be to “provide government services affected by a revenue reduction resulting from COVID-19.”

Find out more at https://www.ncsl.org/ncsl-in-dc/publications-and-resources/american-resc....