The Town of Morse will assist Treehouse Broadband with a $550,000 project to offer high speed internet to 230 locations.
This would be the second project Morse and Treehouse have worked on together. In 2020 Morse put $100,000 into a project to extend internet to 350 locations.
Isaac Olson said 260 of the 350 locations are now Treehouse customers.
“That is a high number compared to the national average of 30-40 percent,” said Olson who explained the new project to the Morse board on Tuesday night.
He said the federal government has put a lot of effort into mapping to see who has broadband access.
“There’s about another maybe 400 locations that we didn’t cover on that map. Now, the federal government’s given some money to companies like Frontier and others to bring broadband in, but there’s still about 230 locations within our area that aren’t covered by those projects,” said Olson.
Most of the locations are in Morse, some are in Fall Lake township as well.
“We’re looking at a project that is about a 50-50 split with the IRRRB. We’re not asking any townships or organizations for any money. But we do need Morse Township to do the application and handle that procedure,” said Olson.
Morse clerk Nick Wognum said he has worked with the IRRRB in the past and will be able to submit the grant information.
In addition to a presentation from Ely school superintendent Anne Oelke (see separate story), Mike Heiman spoke to the board about a sewer for a new house on Burley Road.
Heiman said the only suitable location is on the back lot on the other side of the road.
Contractor Josh Day said they will need to cut a four foot wide section across the paved road. He said the road will be returned to the same condition with paving by Dave Starkman.
The board approved the request to cut across the pavement on the township road.
In other business the board:
• Discussed attending the RAMS annual dinner on Dec. 3.
• Passed a resolution for state funding for roads in Romberg Acres.
• Heard from supervisor Terry Soderberg that an agreement was reached for distributing lodging tax funds at a meeting earlier that day.
• Was notified of an Ely Area Ambulance Joint Powers Board meeting on Monday at 4 p.m. at the Winton Community Center.
