It has been announced that the day’s agenda for the NWBDC-hosted tour with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) on Tuesday, September 24, 2013 will include a radio forum at WXPR 91.7 FM Public Radio Plus in Rhinelander. The forum will be moderated by NWBDC founder Don Sidlowski with PSC Chairman Phil Montgomery and PSC State Broadband Director Dr. Tithi Chattopadhyay serving as panelists. From there, the delegation from Madison travels to Three Lakes for a forum being held at the Three Lakes Center for the Arts auditorium, starting at 2:00 pm. Expected to be in attendance from an eight-county area are state, county and local elected officials joined by members of county and regional economic development corporations, chambers of commerce, visitor bureaus, civic organizations, owners and executives from local area businesses, representatives of the telecommunications provider community, the media and the general public.

NWBDC Founder Don Sidlowski reports that on the same day two separate resolutions in support of broadband expansion and adoption passed. In similar actions on Tuesday August 20, the Oneida County Board of Supervisors and the Common Council of the City of Rhinelander approved resolutions respectively stating that “Oneida County will be home to the best broadband opportunities of any rural county in Wisconsin as measured by speed, adoption rate of its citizens, and data capacity” and “that the City of Rhinelander will pursue the best possible broadband availability in terms of speed, adoption rate by citizens, and data capacity”. Sidlowski notes that the passage of such resolutions is consistent with Step 1 of the “Building Community Broadband Capacity” model he authored and which has been published by the University of Wisconsin – Extension. The two key elements of Step 1 are “change and commit” which means the local units of government must first change their mindset to make broadband adoption a priority and then commit funding to the effort. In their resolutions, both the County and the City have appointed the Oneida County Economic Development Corporation (OCEDC) to oversee the effort. In turn, the OCEDC formed a Technology Committee chaired by Sidlowski to carry out the task of identifying projects and bringing the requests for funding back to the County and City.

NWBDC founder Don Sidlowski announced that the Coalition will host a tour of the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) on Tuesday, September 24, 2013. Among those expected to visit Rhinelander and Three Lakes are PSC Chairman Phil Montgomery, PSC State Broadband Director Dr. Tithi Chattophadyay, and Maria Alvarez-Stroud, Director of the UW-Extension Center for Community Technology Solutions. More details on agenda and tour stops to follow.

At the request of WXPR News Director Ken Krall, the founder of the NWBDC, Don Sidlowski, coordinated the format, questions, and participants for a one-hour long forum on WXPR Rhinelander 91.7 FM on the topic of “how public-private partnerships can be utilized to further broadband expansion and adoption as a tool for economic development and job growth in Northern Wisconsin”. Sitting on the five person panel, in addition to Don, were Representative Rob Swearingen (State of Wisconsin, Assembly District 34), Mr. Rob Riordan (Cellcom/Nsight, Executive Vice-President and Director of Corporate Development), Ms. Joni Theobald (Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, Director of Education and Workforce), and Mr. Tim Brown (UW-Extension Oneida County Community, Natural Resource & Economic Development Agent). At the Public Service Commission Summit in Madison on April 4, Governor Walker announced (go to 01:49:55 mark of the video) that $4.3 million dollars would be set aside in the current state budget for broadband development. While making it clear that he didn’t want government either subsidizing or taking the place of the private sector, he simultaneously emphasized that there is a role for government in facilitating the expansion of the expansion and adoption of broadband and that’s why he put the grant program for broadband development in his biennial budget plan. Since that time, the Governor has specifically and repeatedly stated that public-private partnerships, or P3s as he calls them, are the means to give priority to large geographic areas, or regions that have a large number of people who are underserved or unserved, especially in rural areas. The discussion during the forum explored some P3s that are already underway and how they can be expanded in the future and in what specific ways. Ken Krall served as the moderator for the forum which was tape recorded on Thursday, August 1 at the WXPR studios located at 28 N. Stevens Street in downtown Rhinelander in the beautifully appointed and technologically state of the art White Pine Room. The program was rebroadcast on Saturday, August 3 at 4 pm and again on Sunday, August 4 at Noon. As well the news story and entire one-hour audio stream of the forum can be found at wxpr.org