Village Board Votes To Pursue Grant For Faster Internet

Orchard’s Internet is slow. 

For business owners and residents alike, Internet speeds have been a priority for a long time, and on Monday night’s village meeting the board moved to take action on the issue. 

Carrie Pitzer, owner and publisher of The Orchard News, stood before the board and presented a grant that could be part of a solution to the Internet problem. 

“We purchased the newspaper back in February and it was our intent then ­— and it remains our intent — to have an office in Orchard,” said Pitzer. “There have been several Tuesdays when we are putting the paper together to ship of to our printer when our Internet is not where we can even upload. So we’ve had to leave at the end of the day to go to Neligh to do that. It’s not very convenient but we make it work and we’re going to continue to make it work.”

The grant, called the Nebraska Internet Enhancement Fund (NIEF) Grant, will provide financial assistance to install and deliver broadband to the community. 

“To be honest with you it is very difficult for us to put out our product,” said Pitzer about the Internet situation. “I’m sure it is not easy for business owners and other people in the community as well. I just tested the Internet speed before I came over here and it was .77, not even a 1 upload. That is slow. And it’s that way every week, so it is very difficult for us.” 

The grant, funded by the Nebraska Public Service Commission, is a matching grant requiring 50 percent of the amount to be matched. It also requires a financial plan to be submitted along with the grant. 

“So the grant application would include a plan to get it here and it’s a matching fund grant, and what that means is the funds have to come from somewhere to match what they give you, and that can be private,” Pitzer explained to the board. “Let’s say ‘X’ business wants to bring it in, let’s say it’s Frontier, they want to bring it from wherever to here. This matching grant would help to do that. They would put $50,000 and this grant would put $50,000 to match that.”

Frontier, currently Orchard’s main Internet provider, received money from the federal government to bring high-speed Internet to rural communities. However, according to a map provided by the public service commission, Orchard is not one of the communities benefited by this grant. 

“Frontier received a grant to put in Internet. It wasn’t high speed, but it was Internet and you’ll notice that Orchard was not included in that grant,” Pitzer said, showing the board a copy of the map. “This came from the public service commission and they said they do not.” 

The NIEF grant would serve Orchard’s Internet needs specifically.

Stephanie Cleveland was present at the meeting and affirmed that having Internet is an important part of running a business.

“I’ll drop Frontier as soon as we get somebody else in,” said Cleveland. “I can’t tell you how many times we can’t run the credit card machine over there because the Internet is down and then we’re on the dial up and that takes forever . . . There was a whole week when nothing was working and we had to call Frontier multiple times to come.”

Pitzer told the board that her intent is to help write the grant and help the community move toward a better telecommunication infrastructure.

“We would like to help write the grant,” said Pitzer. “I’ve been in communication with the Neligh Economic Development office because they write a lot of grants. They said they would assist in it. They can’t write it, but they said they would look over it and they can make sure it has everything it needs and make suggestions.”

Brenda Harrison also brought to the board’s attention Orchard’s Economic Development Association, which could assist in the process as well. 

“Orchard is a member of the Northeast Economic Development,” said Harrison. “ . . . I think that they can help you write it.” 
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Pitzer said she welcomed the assistance. The board then unanimously approved a resolution that authorizes Pitzer Digital, LLC, to “submit an application of a yet-to-be-determined amount to the Nebraska Public Service Commission” and to “compile, complete and execute the information and forms necessary to complete this application.”