Sibley County Commissioners Vote YES!

April 25, 2012 By 2 Comments

Tears of joy, sighs of relief, smiles all around, standing room only, and lots of high fives! A pledge card was handed to Tim D. from a commissioner showing his support….  That was the scene yesterday at the commissioners meeting following a 5-0 resolution to back the RS Fiber project to the next phase.

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 26th, 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! 

Filed Under: Announcements Tagged With: , , ,

Requesting Help from the Community!

March 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It was encouraging to see so many RS Fiber supporters at Monday night’s informational meeting. Thank you for taking the time to come and voice your opinions about the project, and for speaking so well to the benefits of RS Fiber from many different perspectives.

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!

Help RS Fiber by VolunteeringAre 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!

Filed Under: Announcements Tagged With: , ,

Update: Critical Action Needed

March 13, 2012 By 1 Comment

This month, a critical decision will be made regarding which cities and counties will be part of the RS Fiber Project as it moves forward.

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.

  • RS FiberThe 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 

Filed Under: Announcements Tagged With: , , , , ,

Poster for Sibley County

March 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Sibley County residents, we kindly ask that you help us spread the word by hanging this poster in the businesses that you frequent in the Sibley area.  We need to get the word out about the importance of contacting the Sibley County commissioners and attending the meeting on March 26th.

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!

Sibley County Poster

 

 

Filed Under: Announcements Tagged With: , , ,

Request FREE Primer on FTTH

February 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Are you unsure about how RS Fiber will benefit your community, business, or overall quality of life?

Do you wish you understood the fiber optic technology better? 

Do you want read nontechnical articles about this project, to better understand the advantages?

RS Fiber has a free informational FTTH Primer to offer you to help you understand fiber optics. It is published by the Fiber to the Home Council with updated data and is written in an easy-to-read full color magazine format. Some of the information it covers includes:FTTH Primer RS FIber

  • FAQ’s on Fiber and Bandwidth
  • Opportunities with Futuristic Services
  • The Advantages of Fiber Optical Access
  • Impacts on Telehealth, the Environment, Real Estate, and more
  • Success Stories about other Communities and FTTH
  • Municipal Priorities and Economic Development

The opportunity that Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) presents to us through RS Fiber will impact our communities for decades to come. If you still have questions or concerns about RS Fiber, or have not yet pledged your support to RS Fiber, please fill out the short form below to get the Free FTTH publication mailed to you.

You can also read the FTTH Primer in digital format. 

FTTH Primer Request

We will mail you the Fiber to the Home Informational Booklet. Simply fill out this short form.

 


Filed Under: FTTH Resources Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Reliable Wireless? Think Again.

February 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

When a person hears of “spectrum crunch”, one might think of chocolate bars or a new abdominal exercise.  But the term “spectrum crunch”  was coined to describe the problem of  cell phones and internet service that is projected to get worse.  According to this article in CNN Money, the mobile phone industry is running out of airwaves to provide voice, text and internet services to it’s ipad FTTH Broadband RS FIbercustomers.  This cell phone capacity crunch poses problems such as more dropped calls, slower data speeds, and an increase in customer prices.

The culprit to the spectrum crunch is primarily the Smart Phone.  According to the Federal FCC, the iPhone, for example, uses 24 times as much spectrum as an older cell phone, and the iPad uses 122 times as much.   There is no doubt our society today loves to get email, play with apps, and watch videos while on-the-go.

Fiber to the Home (FTTH) is reliable high speed internet that will help us stay ahead of the technology curve.  If we can collect the pledges needed to get the RS Fiber Project started for the Renville-Sibley Project area, we will not have to rely solely on the wireless carriers who are likely to charge us more for a less reliable and slower service.

Read the complete article, Sorry, America: Your Wireless Airwaves are Full on CNN Money.

If you have not yet pledged your support to RS Fiber, please fill out this pledge card.

Photo Credit: liewcf

Filed Under: FTTH Resources, RS Fiber Advantages Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Communication and Pledging Now Made Easier

February 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The RS Fiber Project is getting closer to reaching the goal of 4000 pledges, and you have probably noticed that we have taken some more big leaps in making it happen.

Here are some ways we are helping to get the Renville Sibley Fiber Project Area up to speed:

  1. New Website: Our new website at www.rsfiber.com makes it easier to learn about the mission of the RS Fiber Project, find upcoming meetings and events and read about how our local communities support this project on our blog.RS Fiber phone and internet
  2. Online Pledge Forms To make pledging easier and faster, we have created an online pledge form for your convenience. Just type in your preferences and contact information, and hit submit!
  3. PDF Pledge Forms: Now it is easy to print out a sheet with 3 pledge forms on it, so you can help spread the word to your friends and neighbors who may not currently have internet access.  By explaining the project to your neighbors and handing out printed pledge forms, we can give everyone the power to get involved.
  4. “Like” us on Facebook:  If you have not joined the RS Fiber Facebook community already, please do!  We keep the vibrant RS Fiber community up-to-date with facts, news, blog posts, event updates, and more!
  5. Email Communication:  We are beginning to communicate with the RS Fiber Supporters via email, so please sign up here or Text RSFIBER to 22828 to join our email list.  We encourage you to forward and share the RS Fiber email messages.

If you are passionate about getting the RS Fiber Project going in your area, we encourage you to share! After you fill out the pledge form, start spreading the word.  Share this webpage, our Facebook page, and emails!  Talk to people in person about why your support the RS Fiber Project. Together, we can make this happen!

Filed Under: Announcements Tagged With: , , , , , ,