— Willmar Planning and Development Director Christopher Corbett dropped the news Thursday that the
is ready to make a decision at the Oct. 20 council meeting to go out for bids to begin the construction of the open-access, citywide
initiative.
The announcement was made during the
Kandiyohi County Economic Development
Joint Operations Board meeting.
“It has been three years in the making, and (Willmar Operations Director) Kyle Box is leading the initiative,” Corbett said. “We’ve done a lot of work with it, and we’re at a point where (the City) Council can now make a decision.”
Willmar Planning and Development Director Christopher Corbett
Contributed / City of Willmar
The construction bids will be for phase one of the initiative, according to Willmar City Administrator Leslie Valiant. Phase one is to install fiber to all residences and businesses west of First Street South between 19th Avenue Southwest and U.S. Highway 12, as well as construct the project’s network operations center.
However, if there are clusters of residences and businesses outside of phase one that have already signed up to receive the service, Valiant noted they may be included as well.
Willmar City Operations Director Kyle Box
Contributed / City of Willmar
The initiative, which was dubbed
in January 2024 and is now being called
is a community-driven effort to construct a $24.5 million city-owned, open-access, high-speed fiber network throughout the city of Willmar, focusing on digital equity and economic growth.
will manage the system and the city plans to take out bonds to pay for its construction. Lease fees from the multiple internet service providers that will operate on the system will be used to pay the debt service on the bonds.
There are currently three ISPs offering service on the network from which to choose — Zuma Internet, Broadband MN and Intellipop — with residential prices ranging from $50 for 500 megabits per second to $149.95 for eight gigabits per second. Those who sign up for the service can change their ISP at any time.
Preorder sign-ups for the network began in May of this year and construction was also expected to begin earlier this year, but preorder sign-ups started off a little more slowly than expected. The city wanted to make sure it was going to perform as expected financially before moving forward with construction.
Now, with more than 500 preorder sign-ups, the city is ready to move forward, according to Corbett.
Valiant explained that the network’s financial projections showed that it needed 212 users in the first year to cover the bond payments for the project and there are now 224 orders within the area of phase one. It is expected that at least 80% of those who have signed up will follow through with subscribing to the service, she added.
Leslie Valiant, Willmar city administrator
Contributed / City of Willmar
She also explained that if a residence or business chooses not to get fiber to their home as the network is being constructed, but decides in the future to connect to the network, they will be charged for that installation.
Jennifer Kotila is a reporter for West Central Tribune of Willmar, Minnesota. She focuses on local government, specifically the City of Willmar, and business.
She can be reached via email at: jkotila@wctrib.com or phone at 320-295-6115.