Collaborators on broadband work break ground

WEVER – Work to begin hooking up more than 100 homes to high-speed broadband access in and around Wever kicked off Wednesday morning with a groundbreaking at the Wever/Green Bay Township Community building.
Officials representing Lee County Economic Development Group (LCEDG), Lee County, Danville Telecom, Southeast Iowa Regional & Economic Port Authority (SIREPA), and the underground contractor for the project met at the building to celebrate the partnership that not only created the opportunities for home and business owners, but will help expand broadband countywide.
Danville Telecom CEO Tim Fencl said the project which capitalized on state grant funding, $1.95 million in county ARPA funding, and private financing, has created a network in the county that is providing individual home service, but also an attractive network for other companies to help expand capacity, as well.
“We here to celebrate substantial completion of the Lee County Broadband project which completes a redundant fiber optic loop, which is a big deal.  Also making connection to 120 homes and a broadband intervention zone,” Said LCEDG President Dennis Fraise.
“You couple this with the groundbreaking we had for the Lee County Health Center and these projects are transformational projects for Lee County, and to have two in the same week is a pretty amazing thing.”
Fraise said planning matters and having a great team matters. The partnerships were solid enough to have LCEDG earn an honor from the International Economic Development Council for its collaboration in helping get the fiberoptic project funded.
Fencl said it was Fraise and the LCEDG that created an alliance to create a broadband study to find out where services were lacking. This was done as a result of the COVID pandemic when students had to huddle in buses to get Internet services in the rural areas of the county.
Fencl gave a lot of credit to Mike Norris, who’s the administrator for SIREPA and is also executive director of Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commission.
He said Norris talked him “off the ledge” when funding sources didn’t add up to the vision the group had initially.
“There were times that I was like, Mike, we can’t afford this. We can’t do it, and Mike would tell me to take a breath and we would find a solution. And we did. I can’t say enough about his leadership.”
Fencl thanked the board of supervisors, LCEDG, SIREPA, and the underground contractor for their vision. He said Fraise was the first one to start asking questions about the reality of service in the county, and then got LCEDG to pony up the funds for a countywide study of broadband service in the county.
He said that study painted a clear picture of what was needed and helped set the table for Danville Telecom coming into the picture and establishing the increased infrastructure.

Lee County Board of Supervisors Chairman Garry Seyb said there’s been an awakening of how to get things done in Lee County in the last three or four years.
“This is one of the first projects with ARPA funding. We got $6.5 million, so this is not an insignificant investment. This is almost 1/3 of the funding that came to Lee County. We were able to come together and work through a group that I really hadn’t heard that much about – the Southeast Iowa Regional & Economic Port Authority  Seyb said.
They’ve been an amazing partner over the last two or three years, not just on this project, but on a number of critical projects to Lee County. SIREPA had a hand in setting up the funding for the Lee County Career Advantage Center.
Seyb said with the Meller Health Family Center, the new Keokuk Ambulance Bay, and now the broadband project is a testament to the collaboration going on. He said the county’s $1.95 million helped spur another 33 million in broadband investment
“We’re expanding with this and I think you’ll continue to see more of this throughout the county with broadband,” he said.
Mike Hickey, the chairman of the SIREPA board echoed the comments of Seyb and Fraise.
“It’s amazing what you can accomplish when no one is seeking credit,” Hickey said.
He said Lee County has been steadfast in their commitment to SIREPA and said the $2 million in funding was what manifested into the $35 million that is now helping homes in rural Wever get access to high speed internet.
Hickey said the redundant loop that was built near Keokuk by Danville Telecom under the mingling of local, state, federal, and private dollars is an attractive economic development tool.
Fraise said if you don’t have broadband momentum, you're dead in the water.
“If you don’t have sufficient broadband service, people will not come here. They just won’t and that speaks to the importance of this great project.”
Hickey said Danville Telecom never waivered in their steadfast approach to push the project through even as estimates for the work came in at almost 30 percent more than engineering estimates.