A View of the Valley

by Linda Schwanke Sometimes it seems to me that life is a long series of taking things for granted. We tend to take so many things for granted: fresh air, clean water, a warm home, indoor plumbing, gas for our vehicles, grocery stores filled with food (and toilet paper!), reliable services like telephone and electricity. You know, all the modern conveniences we rely on and don’t really have to think about a whole lot. We should think about them. And think about how the world is changing and we need to keep up with it. My Grandma Griffith used to tell my sisters and I the story about a house in Appleton right next to the Memorial Drive bridge (they lived on one side of the bridge when I was very small, we lived on the other). The house was the first home in the entire country lit by electrical light. It was a big beautiful house – probably still is, I haven’t been by there in years – owned by a man named Henry Rogers. He owned a paper mill in Appleton and it was big, big business. According to the Wisconsin Historical Society story I read, “The paper industry drove Appleton’s economy. The first paper mill was built in 1853. To provide electricity to the industry, the nation’s first hydro-electric central station began operation in Appleton on September 30, 1882.” And then Rogers put it in his house because he had the money to light his house up with electricity. Years later, as electrical needs grew more common in cities, the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 was passed as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. It was a big deal because it meant that all the people living outside of urban areas – and in those days that was most people – could finally have electricity. “In the 1930’s U. S. Senator George Norris of Nebraska was concerned that the descendants of homesteaders and other people living in rural America were not getting a ‘fair chance.’ Norris lamented that in rural America the men and women were ‘growing old prematurely; dying before their time; conscious of the great gap between their lives and the lives of those whom the accident of birth or choice placed in towns and cities.’ “ History is repeating itself. The most recent thing we are taking for granted is internet and cellular connections. People in cities and urban areas have reliable internet. Rural areas, not so much. Iowa County has 67.6 percent coverage of reliable, high-speed internet, known as broadband. Richland County has 53.1 percent and Sauk County 85.1 percent. If you have a cell phone, you know that traveling in rural areas service is non-existent so hot-spots aren’t much use. According to BroadbandNow, “Wisconsin ranks 30th when compared to the rest of the states in the US in terms of broadband coverage. Within Wisconsin, none of the counties have less than 45 percent high-speed internet coverage. The counties with the best coverage are largely concentrated in the southeast corner of the state. Only 13.4 percent of Wisconsinites have access to fiber-optic service, which is nearly half the national average of 25 percent of Americans with access to the same.” The Town of Spring Green has gotten grants as part of the state’s federal grant package to install broadband and they are making huge progress. It’s great. If you live in Clyde or many other rural areas, not so much.  It has become clear, especially with the pandemic, that our world is more and more reliant on the internet. Meetings and learning and just to get on a list for a COVID-19 vaccine is all online. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to contact people who want to get information in the Home News about this, that and the other thing and had to ask to get a phone number for people to call them. They’re like – oh here’s the website – use this. What about all the people who don’t have internet? Do they/we just get left behind? Well, yeah. Right now they do. It is time for that to change. The pandemic has made internet for all critical. There is so much we’re missing if we don’t have it. Internet has become as necessary as electricity.  The Wisconsin Broadband Office, part of the Public Service Commission (PSC) of Wisconsin has a plan. As part of that plan, the Wisconsin Department of Instruction (DPI) is asking for help to better collect information on internet speeds throughout the state. In partnership with Measurement Lab, the DPI invites residents to test their home internet speeds using M-Lab’s speed test. Data produced by the test provides broadband planning groups additional information to target improvements where internet performance is poor. “By simply taking a few seconds to test their internet speed, Wisconsinites can help us close the digital equity gap in our state,” said DPI Assistant State Superintendent of the Division for Libraries and Technology Kurt Kiefer, a member of the Governor’s Task Force on Broadband Access. “The data will help determine where improvements to internet need to be made and is essential to ensuring high-quality learning for all children.” The speed testing project will continue through March 31, 2021. Let’s see if we can get broadband for all pushed on up that list of all the things that need to be done that aren’t getting done because, really, there’s so much to be done and not enough money to do it. It’s not unlike why rural electrification became part of the New Deal, which aided economic recovery for this country during the Great Depression.  Stay in touch with me and with each other. My number is 574-3159. Email me at homenewseditor@newspubinc.com or write to me at the Home News, P.O. Box 39, Spring Green WI 53588. We can look forward to a brighter tomorrow if we do the work today. The news deadline is 12 noon on Mondays.  Visit our website at homenewsrv.com