Thanks to Federal Recovery Act, Broadband Finally Coming to Rural Sauk County

Rural Internet access to improve.  (Baraboo News Republic, 11/21/2011)

Excerpt: The wait for broadband Internet is almost over for a rural third of Sauk County.

Reedsburg Utility received final approval Nov. 11 for its plan to install fiber-optic cables across the county and bring high-speed Internet to rural residents.

The approval came more than a year after the utility was awarded a $5.2 million federal Recovery Act grant to install the cable.

"We finally got the award notice last Friday," Utility Superintendent Dave Mikonowicz said Wednesday. "We knew we'd be getting it soon, so we had crews ready to go and broke ground right away."

Crews already have installed cables along several roads north of Reedsburg, including county Highways V and F and Farber and Old Town Hall roads. Ultimately, about 375 miles of cable will stretch from the northern end of Sauk County, along Interstate 90/94 and southwest to Loganville, Lime Ridge and Hill Point.