Editor’s note: This is the fourth article in a five-part series highlighting the need for broadband internet expansion in Pierce County. In this article, we asked Pierce County Board members and candidates to share their internet stories and opinions on using ARPA funds for broadband expansion. Many responded, although not all of their comments could be used due to space constraints.

As the Pierce County Board election approaches April 5, there are many topics on the minds of candidates, ranging from workforce housing to responsible spending, to recruiting and retaining quality employees to reducing methamphetamine use and its stranglehold on county resources. However, it seems that one topic many candidates agree is important is broadband expansion in Pierce County’s rural and/or underserved areas.

In the 15 years that she has lived in rural Ellsworth, District 14 candidate Melissa Petersen’s family has used a half-dozen different methods to access the internet. As an attorney who works the majority of time from her home office, lack of reasonably priced, reliable broadband service to her home has been challenging. Working from home is important to her, because it has allowed her to raise her 10 children in Pierce County.

“Access to a regular Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) is unavailable, we are just ‘too far away,’ so all options require the bits to be transmitted through the ‘luminous aether,’” Petersen said. At first, the Petersens had a regular cellular hotspot, but later purchased a professional one for $650. Mounted to a high window, it gave them one 4G connection.

“We tried to use our cellphones for as much as we could but in bad weather, they would all resort to 3G mode which meant you could type faster than it could be transmitted,” Petersen lamented. “After several years the provider changed something on the only tower we could connect to and we ended up switching to satellite service. That, of course, doesn’t work at all when there are storms and even when it does work, it has ‘high latency.’ Since the signal is literally being transmitted

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22,000 miles into space and back, there is a significant delay in any response.”

An early receiver, mounted to the satellite dish, was especially sensitive to temperature and whenever it got below -12 would just stop working, Petersen said. Under high transmission rates, the router overheats and locks up, even with “supplementary cooling” installed.

Added to these inconvenient woes is the fact that they pay the equivalent of a monthly payment for a new car to ensure internet access. Many families don’t have the ability to work that into their budgets.

One of her goals, if elected, is to support using American Rescue Plan Act dollars to establish reliable and affordable rural broadband throughout the county.

“Moving this critical infrastructure forward is critical to maintaining the standard of living, attracting new businesses, and ensuring children are able to effectively engage in learning at home,” Petersen said.

During the pandemic, Petersen’s husband, Michael Petersen (a candidate for Ellsworth School Board), started working from home as well. The already stressed internet connection was pushed to the limits with Zoom and Teams. Their children’s schools closed, so learning from home became the new daily routine.

“We set up seven computers on our dining room table, and an internet crisis ensued,” Petersen said. “Most days we had to run the educational virtual classes on four or five different cell phones simultaneously. The school district was supportive and gave us another hotspot to use, but we still faced severe limits on what online work we could complete.

“To be clear, there were times where we had to decide between doing work activities to support our family or the educational needs for our children.”

Many of their younger children had no direct contact with teachers for most of the pandemic. They did their work on paper and Petersen scanned it and emailed it to their teachers. They also relied on telemedicine, “a much-needed relief to using already stressed medical facilities,” Petersen said.

Rural broadband is on the same plane as Pierce Pepin Cooperative Services energizing the first electric lines in June 1938, Petersen said. Businesses, farms and residents were “energized,” and it soon became impossible to imagine life without reliable electric service.

“Do you think you could live being able to either run your refrigerator or your oven but not both?” Petersen asked. “Or would it be fair to have electric service to distant customers that allowed for the use of only a single light? In the midst of the pandemic would you want to choose between washing your clothes or having the lights on, but not both?”

District 8 incumbent Dean Bergseng personally experienced electricity coming to his farm for the first time as a child, and he likened broadband expansion to that momentous occasion.

“To me it’s like electricity that we got in ‘42. I grew up about three or four years without it,” Bergseng said. “So many people have iffy broadband. It would be nice to get broadband so families, businesses and children would have access to quality broadband.”

Prescott resident and District 1 candidate Ruth Gredvig remembers when her parents got internet for the first time. She grew up in a small northwestern Minnesota town and it opened up a whole new world for them.

“Back then we had dial-up internet and my parents could only afford one phone line, so if someone called, you were kicked off the internet and had to reconnect – something I’m sure many folks my age and older can relate to,” Gredvig said. “There certainly was a lack of internet in the town I grew up in.”

When her hometown received broadband, they had one company to choose from. If you lived on one side of town, internet wasn’t available because of trees’ interference. While she is thankful that her household has reliable internet, she realizes many in Pierce County still don’t. It became apparent just how important reliable broadband is during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In 2020 families were abruptly shut into their homes, having to clear the kitchen table and make it their office and schoolroom,” Gredvig said. “I’ve heard stories of students who had to sit in parking lots of local businesses and use the guest wifi to complete e-learning assignments because reliable internet was not available to them.”

Reliability is important, but so is affordability, Gredvig said. Although she is 100% for broadband expansion, she believes more public input is needed in regards to using ARPA monies to fund it.

“If the board decides to use ARPA dollars, they need to ensure the proposal is eligible under ARPA criteria,” Gredvig said.

Career needs

In 2019, District 10 candidate Crystal Mooney applied for a work-from-home job because her husband needed a kidney transplant.

“If he didn’t receive a kidney, he would have had to do dialysis from home,” Mooney said. “I felt it was important to be around to help him.”

She trained for her new job for one year in Minneapolis, but once she was ready to transfer to home, she learned she needed to have an internet speed of 70 or higher to download. Her internet provider didn’t offer that. She couldn’t do her job and had to leave it, an incredible disappointment after putting a year’s time in.

“Then when COVID came we had a hard time having multiple devices logged on,” Mooney said. “I have heard many of these stories in Pierce County. With so many people working from home now and homework being done online, I do support the funding for highspeed broadband.”

District 9 candidate Angela Mathison, a town of Gilman resident, echoed Mooney’s support. Many businesses are discovering the benefits of telecommuting and want to maintain it.

“While we enjoy our rural communities and slower paced life here in Pierce County, we must keep up with technology,” she said.

District 8 candidate Martin Kretzmann said he’s ecstatic that high speed internet may soon be available to every person in the county. While he doesn’t want nor expect the county to pay for the actual service to residents, he feels partnering with SwiftCurrent Connect and other local companies is a good option.

“I know the word ‘infrastructure’ is used a lot recently, but at the speed technology is taking us, now is the time to make this a reality,” Kretzmann said. “I had three children trying to do online schooling last year and they were literally unable to do their basic school work because the satellite internet we pay about $300 per month for is slow, unreliable and spotty.”

His wife recently changed jobs and her new employer encouraged her to work from home. However, she can’t because of their current internet service. Kretzmann’s small business relies on the internet, and he admits he faces struggles every day.

“I personally think Pierce County is late to the game on this issue and should take every opportunity and available financial resource, including ARPA, to make it happen,” Kretzmann said. “As much as I firmly believe in small and limited government, this is an example where I am in favor of the county taking action, perhaps adding additional financial resources to SwiftCurrent to greatly expand their current plan in a more expeditious timeframe.”

District 17 Supervisor Mel Pittman said he’s heard from a few constituents who favor spending ARPA monies on broadband expansion. He agrees the county should invest some monies in broadband.

“The last two years have shown us with both education and work from home that good broadband is important,” Pittman said. “However, there are some answers I think need answering like, should installation of broadband be public or private funding or both?”

He questions whether each family home can afford the broadband services provided and whether or not they considered their internet needs before moving to an underserved area.

“Just like families that choose to live rural and need to figure out their transportation issues versus a city dweller, so some forethought should be with broadband,” he said.

He himself has DSL from a landline that is adequate for his needs, but it doesn’t allow downloading videos or streaming. His neighbor seems content with 5G internet service from a cell tower west of Plum City, but he realizes that might not work for everyone.

“I know other areas of Pierce County are underserved and private industry is moving forward to try to serve them, but it takes time and money, which is proposed to come my way in about four to five years to southeastern Pierce County,” Pittman said. “Broadband is important but other issues in Pierce County are important also for our constituents.”

District 9 Supervisor Paula Lugar said while she supports the use of ARPA dollars for highspeed broadband internet expansion in the county, Pierce County also has other needs that must be weighed in the decision process.

“One of those issues is affordable housing or ‘workforce’ housing,” Lugar said. “We can’t attract people to the county if they can’t afford to live here.”

District 15 candidate Craig Theis lives in rural Prescott and has struggled with lack of internet access. He’s looked into DSL and could get 500kbs service, which is not really usable for anything, he said. The point-to-point system installed on local towers and farm silos isn’t usable for him in the valley.

“This leaves me with the only option being a cellular internet service,” he said. “Now while this works, the cost is very expensive.”

While Theis isn’t opposed to using ARPA funds to open up access for high-speed internet, the potential cost concerns him. He hopes internet companies, who will have much of the overhead installation costs possibly covered by government grants and ARPA dollars, reflect that in the prices passed on to consumers. If the customers’ costs are high, so that the companies can make large profits even though much of the installation costs were covered, he's not sure using ARPA funds is the correct path for the county.

To learn more about area broadband advocacy efforts, visit Western Wisconsin Needs Broadband on Facebook or go to piercecountygro. org