Marion County Board Chair Debbie Smith has created a new full committee to deal with building out broadband in the rural areas of the county.
A subcommittee of the Community Relations Committee had started working on the issue, but Chair Bill Henson says the work that needs to be done requires the effort of a full committee.
Smith appointed Chris Krupp as chair and Steve Whritenour, Deb Reed, Tracy Murray, and Jack Riley as members.
Smith did not appoint board member Brock Waggoner who had done the initial work on the topic as chair of the subcommittee.
“I mean honestly, this is the project that I have been spear headed and working toward. And the problem I have is that I don’t disagree with members having qualifications but this has been the project I’ve been working on, putting in the ground work and putting effort in to help spear head this. I would like to have an answer as to why I was left off.”
Smith had said the members appointed were all from rural areas of the county that would benefit by the build out of fiber optic internet to the rural area, but offered no further explanation to Waggoner after his remarks.
The committee will be working to obtain state and federal grant dollars to help pay for the rural build out since money paid by customers alone will not be enough because of the distance between homes.
