Dear County Council members,
I would like to point out to the 4 veteran council members and the general public, that at the December 17 council meeting, Commissioner Jason Abel reminded the previous council, that early last year, they indicated support for the broadband project when Linda Sanders rallied citizens to attend one of your meetings.
He also reminded the council that the broadband project was an important issue on the minds of voters during the last election. I witnessed Commissioner Abel give this testimony to the council during the short hearing, as did everyone in attendance.
Commissioner Abel and his WORKING GROUP TEAM had vetted the interested parties and determined which internet companies would be the best fit for Shelby County, which was Ninestar and Xfinity. As I understand their intentions, they negotiated a contract and were prepared to recommend it to the council to pass at the December 17 hearing, at which no vote was taken on the contract that day.
I will point out that if the council wanted to support the broadband project, there was still time between the Dec. 17 meeting and the Dec. 31 deadline to use up the ARPA funds AND the contractual deadline to get the contract finalized. There were two weeks to resolve council issues, put a 7-day notification in the newspaper of an emergency hearing and beat the Dec. 31 deadline.
The purpose of reminding the council and the public of these events is to motivate the council to move forward on the broadband project. Please decide what you need to see in the contract for you to support it. Express that information to Commissioner Abel and see if those issues can be resolved with Ninestar and Xfinity and move the broadband project forward again.
Shelby County deserves faster internet service for our underserved and the benefit of internet for the unserved (the folks who have none at all). We all deserve a county government who is committed to making that happen!
Thank you for your time and I hope your efforts will produce some good news for Shelby County citizens very soon!
Mike Carpenter
429 West 400 South
Shelbyville, Ind.
