Nearly 90 more homes within Crystal Township will have internet access after the Crystal Township Board voted to spend $100,000 of its American Rescue Plan Act money on a fiber broadband internet expansion by CMS Internet. — Submitted map | CMS Internet
CRYSTAL TOWNSHIP — Nearly 90 more homes within Crystal Township will have internet access after the Crystal Township Board voted to spend $100,000 of its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money on a fiber broadband internet expansion.
Jeremy Sheets, president of CMS Internet in Crystal, originally sent a letter to the township board in March 2022 requesting $229,000 in ARPA funding to expand fiber broadband internet service into underserved areas of the township. The plan called for bringing high-speed internet to approximately 280 residences within the township.
Jeremy Sheets
Township officials were concerned about spending that much money on the project, so over time Sheets reduced the size of the project to $156,000 for nearly 90 residences.
“The reason we picked this area is it’s the last densely populated area in Crystal Township that didn’t have good broadband there,” Sheets told the Daily News.
As the matter came up for discussion during the Jan. 11 meeting of the township board, Supervisor Curt McCracken expressed some reservations.
“Personally I’d like to see us sit on our COVID money until we get this park project done,” McCracken said, referring to a major Crystal Township Park redevelopment project.
“That could take years — years and years,” Treasurer Nancy Johnson responded. “Recently due to an address change, I struggled with no internet and it was not very pleasant. I’ve had emails from people in the area that this would cover encouraging us to look at this.”
“It does service 88 homes,” Trustee Alisha Little added. “I don’t get very good internet, it’s T-Mobile and on Mount Hope Road we don’t get service. I would like to work remotely from home, but I can’t do that because I don’t get reliable service. I would like to see this move forward as well.”
Little noted that CMS also participates in the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) which allows qualified households to lower internet or wireless costs by $30 per month.
“I really think this would serve our community with a great opportunity, especially with COVID and kids missing school,” Little said. “I know there are kids out there who don’t have internet who would like the internet. I think it’s a good investment.”
Johnson asked Sheets, who was present in the audience, if he would consider reducing his request from $156,000 to $100,000 and still service the 88 proposed homes.
“Yes, we would,” Sheets responded after some thought. “We’ll subsidize the additional if that would make it easier to swallow.”
The township board then voted unanimously to approve Sheets’ request.
