(Chelsea Update would like to thank Gary Muncie for the information in this story.)
The Lyndon Township Board unanimously approved ballot language for a bond proposal to fund construction of a fiber optic broadband network serving every home in that township, which will appear on the Aug. 8 election ballot.
Residents will see this on the ballot:
LYNDON TOWNSHIP BROADBAND INTERNET BOND PROPOSAL
Shall the Township of Lyndon, County of Washtenaw, Michigan, borrow the principal sum of not to exceed Seven Million Dollars ($7,000,000) and issue its general obligation unlimited tax bonds, in one or more series, payable in not to exceed twenty (20) years from the date of issue of each series, for the purpose of paying the cost to acquire, construct, furnish, and equip capital improvements consisting generally of a fiber optic infrastructure to provide broadband internet service in the Township including, but not limited to, fiber optic backbone, service lines, necessary electronics, rights-of-way, accessories and attachments thereto and any other related component, equipment or cost necessary to place the improvements into service?
If approved, the estimated millage to be levied in 2017 is 2.8692 mills ($2.8692 per $1,000 of taxable value) and for the remaining 19 years the estimated simple average annual millage rate required to retire the bonds is 2.9102 mills ($2.9102 per $1,000 of taxable value).
Lyndon residents who would like to know more about this project are encouraged to attend informational meetings scheduled for Wednesday, June 21 and Thursday, July 20 at 7 p.m. at Lyndon Township Hall, 17751 N. Territorial.
If Lyndon voters approve the bond proposal, the township will proceed with construction of the fiber optic network infrastructure, bringing a fiber connection to every home in the township. Based on currently available taxable valuation data for Lyndon Township, the average cost per homeowner for this construction will be about $21.92 per month.
Once completed, the township will then partner with one or more private service providers to deliver Internet access to residents. Estimated monthly costs for basic Internet access will be about $35. This internet service will provide an estimated speed of 100Mb, with no caps on data usage, and access speeds will not be throttled back for heavy users.
The average combined cost of the millage for infrastructure and monthly fee for service will be about $57 per month. It is anticipated that if funded, Lyndon’s internet service will be up and running by December 2018.
Lyndon Township, like many townships in Western Washtenaw County, is significantly underserved with regard to broadband. This is because population densities are too low to support the return on investment required by corporate providers.
This can come as a surprise to residents from nearby areas that are well served by broadband, and who take their speedy, reliable internet access for granted.
“Our friends from Ann Arbor find it unbelievable that at our house it takes many hours – overnight, actually – to simply update our Windows operating system. Sometimes, longer than that, when we lose our internet connection along the way,” said Lyndon resident Jo Ann Munce in a press release.
“People we know here in Lyndon have caps on the amount of data they’re able to use, so they’re not even able to perform a software update without paying for additional data. Then, if they want to do anything else on the internet that month, they have to buy even MORE data. It can get really expensive very quickly,” Munce said in a press release.
Broadband is increasingly important for full participation in 21st century society. Maribeth Hammer, a Lyndon Township resident, described the situation: “We live in Washtenaw County, within 20 miles of the University of Michigan, 7 miles from downtown Chelsea and cannot get a high-speed internet connection. My husband has to drive to the Chelsea District Library to complete many of his work requirements, as well as my children with their college and job-hunting connection needs.”
To get involved or find out more, please visit www.mbcoop.org.
$57 a month is $20 less than Comcast charges me for equivalent service within the city, so go for it Lyndon residents!
Affordable access to high-speed internet is a necessity for most people in today’s society. I live in Sylvan Township and experience problems similar to those described in this article. I would like to see a proposal of this nature for all of the rural townships in Washtenaw County.
You have to be kidding! Please think this through. This is an extremely rural township, do you really believe that they can wire 32 square miles for fiber in 1 year? The 100 MB speed would be for new fiber cable, if they use existing copper then, maybe, 6MB. Who is responsible for the implementation? Assuming that it is ever completed, how is the system maintained, who pays? Who is the actual ISP. What are the guarantees that everyone will have access?. I seriously doubt that I will ever have access because I am a ½ mile through my neighbor’s property from the nearest township road with no telephone poles to string cable. No one has an assessment of $100,000, so you are asking people to pay $500 or more per year for 20 years so that other people can have the option having another monthly bill in an amount yet to be determined.
The Township has no business being involved directly in anything like this. Example, Western Washtenaw Wireless. $300,000 spent for a failed system that at it’s peak signed up 40 people. Western Washtenaw Recycling, providing a service for hundreds of dollars a year that the Trash Contractors do for $10 per year and they pickup.
I am an IT consultant and I definitely agree that there is a need for better internet access. How about the township(s) use their franchise agreements with Comcast and AT&T to demand access for everyone? What about the MTA?
Please do not believe the hype. If this passes, 5 years from now some percentage (60%?) of township residents will have internet access subsidized with the $10,000 to $15,000 the rest of us will have to pay.