By RANDY BARTLEY
Staff writer
Members of the Northwest County Commissioners Association were told Monday it is possible to have broadband services in rural Pennsylvania.
“Broadband is so important,” Ed Matts, director of information systems at the North Central Regional Planning and Development Commission, said Monday at a meeting of the Commissioners Association at the county park in Paint Township.
Matts told the county commissioners broadband service had been brought to the Cook Forest area through a collaborative effort.
“We used the old fire tower and put the antennae and equipment at the tower,” Matts said. “We were able to use the Pennsylvania State Police network and placed solar panels on the tower for power. As a result the Gateway Lodge now has broadband service.”
Matts said the federal CARES Act offers an opportunity to build out the availability of broadband.
“We have been able to bring broadband to places like Miola in Clarion County,” he said. “We are using a barn silo. We need height. We are also looking at expanding into the Vowinckel area.”
“This is an economic method of getting broadband into a little town,” he said.
That deadline is important because the expansion of broadband may be included in the CARES Act grant.
“We are looking at finding the gaps in the system and filling them,” Matts said. He said the North Central Commission has mapped six counties.
Matts said the costs can be kept as low as $75 a month.
“We keep a reserve for emergency repairs,” he said. “Twenty years ago you could go without your internet for days. Today you need to get it up and running in hours.”
Venango County Commissioner Chip Abramovic said Venango County recently put together a “redneck Internet” to serve those at the bowhunting championships held over the weekend at Two Mile Run County Park.
Abramovic said the signal was bounced from several buildings before it finally reached a crane that was moved specifically to the site for the competition.
Matts urged the commissioners to be inventive and to “think outside the box.”