The county Economic Resource Council issued this press release:
The Nevada County Economic Resource Council (ERC) has been notified that the Nevada County Connected (NCC) wireless broadband Internet network project has been brought into the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Round 2 due diligence process. Per the email received, “Only those applications considered to be highly qualified advance from merit review to due diligence.”
The Round 2 application for NCC was submitted by the ERC on March 26 requesting $7.69 million in federal stimulus funding for the $11.1 million project within the Comprehensive Community Infrastructure (CCI) category under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). This stimulus funding is provided through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
Nevada County Connected was recently included in Governor Schwarzenegger’s top 10 recommended CCI projects in Round 2, and has already received a California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) grant of $1.1 million — a 10 percent match predicated on the receipt of ARRA funding.
“We are quite proud that Nevada County Connected has entered due diligence, as we presented it as a model rural broadband project,” said ERC President & CEO Gil Mathew. “The next few weeks will be intense. Chip Carman and John Paul, of Spiral Internet, and myself will need to respond to questions by a four-member team from the NTIA.”
Chip Carman pointed out that “The carrier-grade technology proposed for Nevada County Connected allows us to deploy wireless services that are frequency- and technology-independent. So local Internet Service Providers, cellular phone providers, and public safety can all use the infrastructure easily. We’re ready for the future, since the network is also scalable.”
A complete list of Round 1 grant recipients and Round 2 grant application submittals can be found at http://www.broadbandusa.gov
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So here is a valley question:
I live down here where it is smoggy and we have lots of traffic.
Most of you get to live in the mountains with clean air and great views.
A whole bunch of us live very close together so I have had the advantage of high-speed DSL and now fiber broadband very early on at a reasonable price.
You lag behind because it is more difficult to justify the expense of providing it in your area and folks are hesitant to pay what it would cost for the service.
So, my question is simply why should my state or federal tax dollars be used to get you a better price?
John
So, did they answer your question?
John, if your reality, humanity, altruism and sense of inclusion in society as a collective whole (something I would think a “Christian” would be cognoscente of) stops at the tip of your nose then that’s a good question.
Otherwise it simply shows you for what you are, and egocentric, manipulative, religion selling snake oil salesman.
And also, frequently our air is worse than yours. We get your crud. So by the same token, why should we have to breath it?
We’re very fortunate to have John, Chip, and Gil representing the county’s broadband project. To advance to this state in a competition that requires technical, political, and economic acumen is a significant achievement. Those of us who’ve been involved in complex technology projects understand the challenges and hard work that are required to compete and be successful. Congratulations to this trio and those who’ve helped them get this far.
Please, everyone, forgive John Stoos his ignorance of the very notion of a nation, the common good, or investments in infrastructure.
John is a self-made sorta fella – born in untrammeled wilderness, he hunted, slew or grew every bite of food he ever ate, built every structure he’s ever lived, worked or played in, built every bridge he ever crossed and every road he ever traveled. And he’s never, ever benefited from a single penny of public investment ever.
Yep, ole’ Iron John (and he smelted the ore that got him his nickname, dontcha know) is as self-reliant as the sun itself.
Why, look out yonder on the snowy Sierra mountaintops each spring, and you’ll see John out there hacking blocks of ice to provide him and his kin a year of drinking water. ‘Cause ole Iron John would never, ever deign to sip a little H2O that’s been collected in a taxpayer-built reservoir, delivered by a taxpayer-subsidized canal, and cleaned in a taxpayer-built treatment plant. None, of which, John, folks up here in Nevada County benefit from, but pay for.
BTW, Bruce is right about the quality – the foothills suffer from some of the worst air quality in the whole country: we breath the pollutants from the Bay Area and Valley, so think about us the next time you idle in traffic, and consider how neighborly it is for us not to rig up some big ole’ fans and send it right back the hill!
Not willing to pay, eh? Try paying $90 a month for highly metered and laggy satellite internet? That’s all we can get. Seems to me that $90 a month is not an unwillingness to pay. And why shouldn’t government do what private enterprise refuses to do? If it were up to people like John, I’d be using a manual typewriter by the light of a kerosene lamp. And yeah, the air up here sucks.
Well John and Gail certainly made my point:
First Gail, yes you pay $90 for something I can get for $39 because of where you live. You can move to Sacramento and get the same service for $39.
And John, water is a great example of how we used to do things right in this state. Our dams and water deliver systems were built with revenue bonds that were repaid by the users of the product, water, which they delivered.
So my question still remains: Why should my state or federal tax dollars go to pay for cheaper Internet service in your area since you get the benefit of living in that beautiful county?
John
I’d prefer that the posts acknowledge the story and the fine work done by Gil, John Paul, Chip, and others. I see no point in engaging with someone who is simply setting bait and seeing who bites.
Boy, Bob Garza could not be more right. Congratulations to Gil, JOhn Paul, Chip et al and forget Mr. Stoos. Thanks for all your work on our behalf. We are grateful.
There has indeed been good work done to make the broadband application for Nevada City. But the quality of this work has little to do with with the question about the proper role of government, which John has raised. Dismissing him with platitudes for the good work done on the application, while avoiding his question seems churlish. Particularly on a blog which I think values discussion.
As for John’s example of the big dams, I did find that ironic. Dam building over the last 80 years has resulted in massive government subsidies for private interests, often using eminent domain power to do so. I have always found it ironic that conservatives are so enthusiastic about using government power to build dams which benefit major corporate interests, while trumpeting the free market ideology for everyone else. (And as an aside: In the context of such large subsidies, what is a little broadband for Nevada City?)
Great points, guys. My work depends on reliable high-speed Internet (not to mention my news addiction!) so kudos to everyone for their hard work on this issue. Our area needs these kinds of resources to remain economically productive and socially dynamic.
Tony, churlish? I don’t think so. No one is stopping you from engaging with John Stoos if that’s what you prefer to do. My time is better spent elsewhere.
Bob:
If you don’t want to engage with someone, just ignore them. To brag that you are not responding to John seems to me, um, a bit “chulish?”
I disagree with John about many of the issues he raises. But he often does make good points, and makes me think twice about my own positions. By engaging him, I probably may not change his mind, but some of the thoughtful people lurking here might!
For example, I still can’t figure out why there is such a big difference between government encouragement/financing of broad band, and dams. John?
Tony
I would ignore you but I can’t. I am not bragging nor am I churlish or extolling platitudes. Now I can ignore you.
LOL!