Before choosing any provider over RS Fiber, know the facts:

Fiber vs. Copper

Several providers will tell you they have fiber, but in reality are using copper and fiber. They may tell you they can give you the benefits of fiber, but they will not bring it right to your home. They will use the fiber they have in place, and continue to use copper to hook to your home. There is an old saying, ‘you are only as strong as your weakest player.’ In this case, you are only as fast as your slowest link. Copper networks (cable TV and phone) were built decades ago to carry voice and one-way video. They are physically incapable of handling the large amounts of data families and businesses send today. Fiber networks are future proof, because fiber has an almost unlimited ability to carry massive amounts of bandwidth over long distances.

Fiber vs. Wireless

With slow data speeds, rising costs and drastic increases in network traffic, space on wireless networks is decreasing. Neither copper nor wireless can match fiber’s speed and reliability. ‘Wireless broadband networks, whether licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, use microwave radiation to transmit and receive their signals. Radio signals can be blocked by buildings, trees and other objects, and transmission quality is subject to atmospheric conditions.’ *

RS Fiber offers local Customer Service

RS Fiber will be owned by you and others you know. Your money will stay in the community. Customer service will reflect that.

RS Fiber for the Long-Term

Competitive providers will try to entice you with that ‘deal that’s too good to pass up’.  Often prices go up a staggering amount after the promotional period. With RS Fiber, you will get upfront affordable pricing for the long- term. RS Fiber will be able to offer things like local programming that other providers cannot.

*Quote from: http://www.cloutnow.org/fiberoptic/

The RS Fiber Marketing Committee kicked off over a year ago with zero pledges in the bank.  With tremendous volunteers and community support, today, we have 3,903 pledges.  That means 10,900 residents in Sibley and Renville county want to be a part of this fiber infrastructure and make their lives a better place today and their future.

Before you can support a project, you must first understand what it is and what it means to you.  If you believe in a project you take ownership and share your feelings with friends, neighbors and family.  That is exactly what, together, our communities have done.

Mr. Nytes moved his vote today by saying, “The numbers are there, so I support it.”   Yes the numbers are there.  Over 55% of the people have spoken with a positive pledge.  This is support.

What is next?

On Thursday, April 26^th, the Joint Powers board will be deciding on the engineer.  Then it is off to bonding.  This process will take approximately 60-90 days.  The legal papers will go to the city councils and commissioners for their review.  In order to remain a player in this project, you will need to agree to the terms of the bonding.  Following this step, it is onto the building of the infrastructure and hooking up of customers.

On behalf of the marketing team, we say “Thank you” to everyone who stepped forward with their pledges, time, support and efforts in accomplishing this major step.  It was truly a team effort! 

“It may surprise people that these cities in Virginia, Tennessee, and Louisiana have faster and lower cost access to the Internet than anyone in San Francisco, Seattle, or any other major city,” says Christopher Mitchell, Director of ILSR’s Telecommunications as Commons Initiative. “These publicly owned networks have each created hundreds of jobs and saved millions of dollars.”

Mitchell believes these networks are all the more important given the slow pace of investment from major carriers. According to Mitchell, “As AT&T and Verizon have  ended the expansion of U-Verse and FiOS respectively, communities that need better networks for economic development should consider how they can invest in themselves.”

Read “Broadband at the Speed of Light”

Download the PDF “Broadband at the Speed of Light

As many of you know, the Sibley County Commission on Tuesday decided to put the matter of RS Fiber to the townships for their approval. In the coming days and weeks, each township will be asked to decide whether it wants to be a part of the project (Read the update from the meeting here).

The commissioners also indicated that they want to see Pledge Card returns at 50% project-wide before they would sign on to the project. This means we have a lot of work ahead of us. In order for the project timeline to stay on track, we have a mere 14 days to collect about 1100 more cards to meet that goal. It is important to get 50% project-wide in order for the big picture of the project to continue on, even though your own city or county may already have voted on the project.

These cards must come from both the rural areas and the cities in order to get to the project-wide 50% level. In fact, the cities are where we have the largest opportunity for growth, as many of the townships are already above the 50% threshold.

We need your help!

Are you willing to make phone calls and/ or go door-to-door in your community to be sure people know about the project?

This is our next step, and one that is very important, as we need to be sure every resident of our area knows about RS Fiber and has the opportunity to return a Pledge Card.

We’ll have a meeting of volunteers this Sunday, April 1, at 6:30 p.m. in the upper level of the Winthrop City Hall. There, we’ll be distributing materials and giving you the tools needed to help us with this next step.

Many of you have already asked how you can help. Well, this is it! If you want to help, please come on Sunday, or fill out this simple Volunteer form.

Thank you for your ongoing support of the RS Fiber Project!

City of Winthrop–Yes
City of  Buffalo Lake–Yes
Renville County–Yes
Arlington–No
Sibley County — See below

March 27, 2012 – After statements by SEDCO director Tim Dolan and Commissioner Jim Swanson, Swanson moved to table the matter indefinitely. The motion carried on a 4-1 vote (with Cohrs opposed).

Commissioner Pinske then brought forward an idea about turning the decision over to the townships.

The matter was brought back to the table, and Pinske’s idea put forth as a motion. The complete motion will be available on the Sibley County website  as part of the meeting minutes, but this how I understood it: The matter will be turned back to the townships for approval, then reported back to the County Board for County Board approval and any township or city can opt out at their discretion.

After the motion carried, discussion took place as to whether approval by the townships/cities was the only necessary criteria for future County Board approval. Not in the motion, but mentioned by at least two commissioners, was a return rate/level of support of 50% project-wide.

The good news is that the project is not dead for the rural residents of Sibley County. On the other hand, we now have a lot of work to do to get the card response rates up to a level that is acceptable to the commissioners for moving forward with the project, and obtaining approval by townships that want to be included in the project.

RS Fiber is having a Meeting of Volunteers on Sunday, April 1st, at 6:30pm at the Upper Level of the Winthrop City Hall. Please come or let us know how you can help.

All 11 city councils and two county commissions (Renville and Sibley) have been asked to decide by the end of this month whether they want to be part of the bonding process as the project moves forward.

Their decisions will determine not only which cities will be part of the project, but whether the fiber network will be built out to the farms in Sibley and Renville counties.  If the county commissioners Vote NO, the rural areas will likely be left out, and the opportunity will be lost. It is imperative that you attend one or both of those meetings and be part of the discussion and/or contact your commissioners via phone or email.

• The Renville County Commission will discuss the project at a public work session on Tuesday, March 20th. The RS Fiber discussion is scheduled for 10 a.m. in the courthouse annex in Olivia.
• The Sibley County Commission will hold a public hearing on the RS Fiber project at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 26th in the basement of the courthouse annex.
• The various city councils will also be voting on if they want to be part of the RS Fiber Project.

The Critical Vote
The days  following the public hearings, at their regular commission meetings, the Sibley and Renville County Commissions are scheduled to vote whether their respective counties will be part of the project. The cities are scheduling their votes depending upon when they meet. The two county commission votes are the critical votes for the project with respect to whether the fiber network will be built out to the rural residents and businesses.

Critical to Rural Residents
To be crystal clear about how critical the vote on March 27th by the Sibley and Renville County Commissioners is for rural residents, if the counties vote not to participate and a fiber network is constructed in the cities, the opportunity for a rural build will probably be lost forever because of the high cost of building the rural areas. It’s really now or never for farm families. We strongly believe that including rural residents in the RS Fiber project will make the project stronger.

How to Help
We are asking you to contact your elected officials (especially your County Commissioners) and let them know how you feel about the project. If you think it’s a good project tell them so. The time is now to let our voices be heard.

Please Contact your Elected Officials now:
Renville County Commissioners
Sibley County Commissioners
City Council Members 

Here is the contact information for the Sibley County Commissioners. Please ask them to support the RS Fiber Project.

Jim Nytes – District 1

Term:  January 2011 to January 2015

Cities:  Henderson

Townships:  Faxon, Henderson, Jessenland, Washington Lake

Email:  JimN@co.sibley.mn.us

Phone:  (507) 248-3539

Bill Pinske – District 2

Term:  January 2003 to January 2013

Cities:  Arlington

Townships:  Arlington, Kelso

Mailing Address: PO Box 527

Email:  BillP@co.sibley.mn.us

Phone:  (507) 964-2250

Jim Swanson – District 3

Term:  January 2009 to January 2013

Cities:  Gaylord

Townships:  Dryden, Sibley

Email:  JimS@co.sibley.mn.us

Phone:  (507) 237-2505

Joy Cohrs – District 4

Term:  January 2011 to January 2015

Cities:  Green Isle, New Auburn

Townships:  Bismarck, Green Isle, Grafton, Moltke, New Auburn, Transit

Email:  JoyC@co.sibley.mn.us

Phone: (320) 864-5252

Harold Pettis – District 5

Term:  January 2011 to January 2015

Cities:  Gibbon, Winthrop

Townships:  Alfsborg, Cornish, Severance

Email:  HaroldP@co.sibley.mn.us

Phone:  (507) 834-6623

Please contact your city council members and ask them to support the RS Fiber Project.  The links below will take you to your city’s website, where most provide the names and contact information for the city council members.  Otherwise contact your city office for more information.

City Councils

Arlington, MN

Brownton, MN - Limited information online, please contact city office at brownton@centurylink.net or 320-328-5318 for city council member information

Buffalo Lake, MN 

Fairfax, MN

Gaylord, MN

Gibbon, MN

Green Isle, MN 

Lafayette, MN – Limited information online, please contact city office at (507) 228-8241 for city council member information

New Auburn, MN - Limited information online, please contact city office at 320-864-5831 for city council member information

Stewart, MN -Limited information online, please contact city office at (320) 562-2730

Winthrop, MN - Limited information online, please contact the city office at 507-647-3200 or winthrop@mchsi.com

County Commissioners

In order the for the RS Fiber project to be built out to farms, it is essential that the county commissioners vote YES.  Please contact your county commissioners and ask them to Support the RS Fiber Project.

Renville County Commissioners

Sibley County Commissioners

Please download this RS Fiber commissioner poster PDF which should be easy to print out and distribute.

Thank you in advance for your help in supporting Renville Sibley Fiber!

Here is the contact information for the Renville County Commissioners (click here for Sibley County Commissioners and City Council Members). Please ask them to support the RS Fiber Project.

District 1 – Ralph Novotny

Phone: 320-848-6392

District 2 – Bob Fox

Phone: 507-557-8265
Email: bob_f@co.renville.mn.us

District 3 – Paul Setzepfandt

Phone: 320-365-3270
Email:  Paul_S@co.renville.mn.us

District 4 – John Stahl

cell: 320-522-0160
Email:  John_S@co.renville.mn.us

District 5 – Lamont Jacobson

Home:  320-765-2578
Email:  lamont_j@co.renville.mn.us