The West Central Tribune reports on what has become an ongoing story of broadband in Willmar…

The Willmar City Council on Tuesday, Jan. 20, will consider awarding the bids for construction of phase one of the Willmar Connect project.

The meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the boardroom of the Kandiyohi County Health and Human Services building, 2200 23rd St. N.E. in Willmar. The council meets Tuesday due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday.

The Willmar Connect project is the city’s plan to construct a city-wide, city-owned, open access broadband network, which the city has been researching and planning for since early 2023.

The city has contracted with Hometown Fiber to assist with network design and the phased build-out of the network, as well as also operate and manage the network on which multiple internet service providers can operate. The ISPs will pay fees to the city, which will generate the revenue to service the debt and interest on the approximately $24.5 million in bonds that will be issued to pay for network construction.

The low bid for phase one came from NC3 of Clearbrook, Minnesota, in the amount of approximately $7.6 million.