The West Central Tribune reports…

 The Willmar City Council on Monday in a split 4-3 vote approved a motion declining to accept the offer by Charter Communications to end the Connect Willmar Initiative.

Councilor Carl Shuldes made the motion, which was seconded by Councilor Vicki Davis. Both voted in favor of the motion, along with councilors Tom Gilbertson and Justin Ask.

They include a little background (of a story I have also been following)…

This decision comes after Charter, which does business in the city under the name Spectrum and is the city’s largest provider of internet and cable television services, on Feb. 7 sent a city to the Willmar mayor and council stating that Charter would build out a fiber-optic network in the Willmar Industrial Park at no cost to the city, but only if the city stopped its plan to construct a city-owned, open-access fiber-optic network throughout the whole city.

Charter also promised to upgrade its existing network to provide better, faster and more reliable service to Willmar businesses and residents.

After sending out a request for proposals to build out fiber-optic services in the industrial park, the city accepted Hometown Fiber’s proposal to build the citywide network; Charter did not submit a proposal. The city of Willmar, with the assistance of the Willmar Broadband Committee and Hometown Fiber, has been researching and planning the Connect Willmar Initiative for two years and has invested approximately $650,000 and countless human resource and volunteer hours on the initiative.