Political Prairie Fire Erupts in Spring Green - Published in the September 8, 2004 Spring Green Home News
Letter to the Editor
A political prairie fire erupted two weeks ago in Spring Green, when a resident was shocked to discover that Sauk County's Communications Infrastructure Committee (CIC) was quietly planning to construct a 250 foot tower near the banks of the Wisconsin River. Enraged residents are now organizing to get the tower moved away from the protected river way. But every resident of Sauk County will be even more shocked to learn that the CIC is spending $6,000,000 of taxpayer's money on aging and redundant communications technologies. This huge expenditure will provide questionable improvement of county communications and no direct use by residents.
Other cities and counties around the country are currently deploying new and inexpensive wireless access technology to give their citizens free access to the Internet. Philadelphia is spending $10,000,000 to provide free Internet access to every resident. Sauk County should be deploying a wireless Internet network for the entire county with the $6,000,000. Every county, town, village and city employee, every business, school district and resident would benefit from free Internet access and the economic development it would enable.
I am not speaking of “future” technology, it is here already. It is cheap and fast and easy to deploy. Every building on every UW campus has or will have free wireless access to the Internet now or in the near future. The county has the money already, but they are spending it on the wrong network.
The outsourcing of hundreds of thousands of US jobs each year to India is only possible because India invested in high-speed Internet access. Free high-speed Internet access can give Sauk County residents a competitive advantage in the global economy. Without it we will be forced to leave the county or drive farther and farther to jobs that pay less and less.
My experience with the situation in Spring Green has opened my eyes to the fact that every citizen in Sauk County must become aware of and involved in this CIC project. We cannot just assume that the supervisors are making the best decisions for our futures. President Reagan once said, “Trust but verify!” Those words have never been truer and are relevant today in Sauk County.
Many Sauk County supervisors are out of touch with the latest digital technology and the infrastructure that is required for successful future economic development. Only 12 of the 31 current supervisors have email accounts. Please take the time to learn more and communicate with the county supervisors on this important subject. Fire is necessary to bring forth new growth to the prairie! Learn more about the CIC project and how to contact your supervisor at http://www.highway60.com/MoveTheTower/.
Mark Culverhouse
Spring Green
MoveTheTower@Highway60.com