Three Municipalities Bring Broadband Dollars Home

Three Door County municipalities partnered with AT&T have earned broadband grants to help defray taxpayer costs for bringing Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) for all addresses within their borders.

The towns of Egg Harbor, Sevastopol and Sturgeon Bay all received a grant from the Wisconsin Capital Projects Fund, which funded 30 projects across Wisconsin, totaling some $40 million.

•The Town of Egg Harbor with AT&T received $960,000 to bring Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) for 1,573 residential and 204 business locations. The match for the project is $7,637,196.

•The Town of Sevastopol with AT&T received $816,693 to bring FTTP for 1,749 residential and 159 business locations. The match for the project is $6,607,787.

•The Town of Sturgeon Bay with AT&T received $552,299 to bring FTTP for 609 residential and 67 business locations. The match for the project is $4,468,601.

The dollars are expected to lighten the taxpayer lift to bring broadband to all addresses within the three municipalities.

“It will reduce the tax levy impact to fund the town’s portion of the project cost based on initial estimates,” said Dan Woelfel, Sevastopol Town Board chair.

Steven Schopf, chair of the Egg Harbor Town Board, said the grant will shorten the term on the town’s loan payment by several years.

“I am very excited with this project,” he said. “We just had a kickoff meeting with AT&T and everything is looking good. I can’t thank our broadband task force and AT&T enough for putting this project together and applying for this grant for us.”

There were 124 applications for the money and 11 of those came from Door County – the highest number in any county in the state, said Jessica Hatch, Door County Broadband coordinator. 

“When you look at the list of matching funds and awards, you can see that the awarded projects were providing 50% or more in matching funds for the overall project,” Hatch said.

WISER survey results – Wisconsin Internet Self-Report, an internet survey and speed test that’s used to advise Wisconsin’s broadband planning – and the Finley Engineering Study conducted in 2021 that assessed broadband infrastructure in Door County helped prove poor broadband performance, Woelfel said, a necessary condition for grant success.

“The objective evidence was hard to refute, especially since the Finley Study results were consistent with WISER,” Woelfel said. “The PSC also acknowledged the broad community support provided in support of the application, and we’re very thankful for the support the town received during the application process.”

David Wood, chair of the Town of Sturgeon Bay’s Broadband Committee, said Hatch and District 14 County Board Supervisor Hugh Zettel, who chairs the Door County Broadband Committee, were instrumental in helping their applications score highly enough for a grant.

“The Town of Sturgeon Bay broadband expansion project would not have been possible without Jessica’s guidance and being able to build on the experiences of the towns of Jacksonport, Sevastopol, Egg Harbor, and other municipalities across the county,” Wood said. 

The Wisconsin legislature did not fund grants for broadband capital projects in the 2023-25 budget due to the federal BEAD (broadband equity, access and deployment) money that was allocated for Wisconsin ($1,055,823,573.51). The grant dollars distributed came from the Capital Projects Fund Award from the U.S. Dept. of Treasury that was administered at the discretion of Gov. Tony Evers. 

Those dollars were the last opportunity for public grant funding until BEAD money is released.

“We will see BEAD funding auctions sometime this summer is my best guess,” Hatch said.