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Waupaca Online grows service

Council approves lease agreement in Readfield

By Angie Landsverk


Waupaca Online will use a grain elevator structure outside of Readfield to provide wireless internet service in the town of Caledonia.

When the common council met last month, it voted 9-1 to approve a lease agreement with CHS Inc. to use the structure.
Ald. Dmitri Martin voted against the motion.

The cost for the initial, two-year lease will be $100 per month, with electricity included.

It will take about two customers to cover that amount, Josh Werner told the council last month.

He is the city’s IT and community media director.

For the last couple months, Werner was in discussions with Paula Pagel about the topic.

She is Caledonia’s town chairperson.

“The area is a lot like rural Waupaca,” Werner said.

He said there are lots of hills and trees, but there are “pockets we can get in.”

Pagel reached out to Waupaca Online, Werner noted in a memo to the mayor and council.

Caledonia was looking for internet options due to challenges in many areas of the town.

The current internet providers in the town have not been responsive to Caledonia’s requests to add, improve and upgrade internet services, Werner wrote.

“We can be part of the solution to providing better internet but not the only solution,” he said.

After exploring options and driving throughout the town, Waupaca Online found the best spot for getting started would be to use CHS’s grain elevator structure, Werner said.

He said the structure is centrally located in Caledonia.

Werner also noted the “height of the structure is just right, and we have good sight in all directions except a small area to the direct north, making this an ideal jumping point to other locations.”

Waupaca Online die a test to make sure it would have the signal needed back to Waupaca to get adequate internet service to the town.

The lease agreement will include space to mount five antennas and the necessary equipment on the structure.

Prior to the council’s vote, Martin questioned providing the service there when the city is working to attract people to move to Waupaca.

Werner said providing the service in communities outside of Waupaca is not a disservice to the city.

He referred to how most of the city has access to high speed internet.

It is about helping the area around the city, Werner said.

The lack of internet providers in rural areas has been talked about for years, he said.

“We’re not a business. We’re a service,” Werner said.

If new technology comes along and the need to provide the service in Caledonia becomes obsolete in five years, Waupaca Online did its job, he said.

City Administrator Aaron Jenson said Martin’s question was a fair one.

He agrees the city wants new residents to move here.

More new homes are being built in the city this year.

Jenson said the city also looks at the region.

Waupaca is a larger commercial area in the county, he said.

When people move to surrounding communities, it is also a win for Waupaca, Jenson said.

Mayor Brian Smith said Waupaca Online is an enterprise fund, which means it generates expenses and income.

Manawa agreement

This is the second lease agreement related to Waupaca Online the council has approved in the last several months.

In August, the council unanimously approved an agreement with a property owner east of Manawa.

All council members were present.

That property owner is now ready to move forward with the project.

This agreement involves a 120-foot tower being built on the property.

Werner plans to apply for a state PSC Broadband Grant to help cover that cost.

This property is located near the intersections of County Trunks T and N, east of Manawa.

Werner told the council it is “one of the most under served areas in the county” for internet service.

“If this, itself, is not justification to pursue providing service some other advantages of this location is extremely favorable terrain for fixed-wireless internet, density of area residents and this location being one (of the) highest locations in terms of elevation in Waupaca County” he wrote in a memo to the mayor and council.

Waupaca Online’s research showed it has direct line of site back to the Shambeau water tower in Waupaca.

He said this site also puts Waupaca Online on a good path for service and redundancy as it is in the correct location to reach some of its northern infrastructure.

“This also presents the opportunity to split some of our expansion area onto its own connection back to Waupaca to push more capacity to our northern customers allowing for better service and the potential of faster speeds,” Werner wrote.
Unlike other locations the utility works with, this property does not already have a structure on it Waupaca Online can use.

The property owner is willing to allow some of his land to be used to build a tower in exchange for an annual payment and internet connection.

The agreement includes a $125 monthly payment for the first three years, payable annually, as well as three free internet connections for the property owner to use at his discretion.

Werner told the council he would not be surprised if within one to two years, they get 20 to 30 customers from this new tower.

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