West Central Tribune reports…

Willmar Planning and Development Director Christopher Corbett dropped the news Thursday that the Willmar City Council is ready to make a decision at the Oct. 20 council meeting to go out for bids to begin the construction of the open-access, citywide broadband initiative.

The announcement was made during the Kandiyohi County Economic Development Joint Operations Board meeting. …

The construction bids will be for phase one of the initiative, according to Willmar City Administrator Leslie Valiant. Phase one is to install fiber to all residences and businesses west of First Street South between 19th Avenue Southwest and U.S. Highway 12, as well as construct the project’s network operations center.

However, if there are clusters of residences and businesses outside of phase one that have already signed up to receive the service, Valiant noted they may be included as well.

The initiative, which was dubbed Connect Willmar in January 2024 and is now being called  Willmar Connect,  is a community-driven effort to construct a $24.5 million city-owned, open-access, high-speed fiber network throughout the city of Willmar, focusing on digital equity and economic growth.

Hometown Fiber will manage the system and the city plans to take out bonds to pay for its construction. Lease fees from the multiple internet service providers that will operate on the system will be used to pay the debt service on the bonds.