City of St. Anthony applies for more broadband

ST. ANTHONY, Idaho (KIFI) - The City of St. Anthony has recently applied to the Idaho Broadband Fund. The city hopes with this application is to lay a city fiber network that will then help the city become more efficient in its efforts to serve the residents of St. Anthony.

"It'll make it so our employees are going to be able to troubleshoot and do some of the easy fixes from home, where now they have to come out," Mayor Donald Powell said.

Powell added the city is hopeful they will get the funding from the state grant.

Some local internet providers are saying wait a minute.As a part of the process the Idaho Broadband Committee has asked for public comment. As a part of the process Blackfoot Communications filed a comment with the state. In part that comment reads, "The St. Anthony grant identifies only four locations which Blackfoot does not serve. However, St Anthony has never made a request to Blackfoot to provide services to those locations. If St. Anthony makes such a request, Blackfoot stands ready to deliver whatever broadband and technology services they need." To read the full comment you can find it here.

Blackfoot Communications also stated if the city were to add any new fiber lines, it would go over preexisting lines they have already placed.

The mayor says currently the city is only hoping to improve their city infrastructure.

"We're not trying to compete with private businesses. This is what they call middle mile. And like I say, the whole purpose of it is to hook the city's infrastructure together, to make us more efficient, be able to work better. We we're not trying to compete with with anybody."

The city will be informed of the State's decision on the matter Wednesday, Jan. 25. They will then know if they will receive all of the grant money, a portion of it or none of it. The city is also asking for feedback on the plan and residents can give that here. You can also read the city's proposal here.