County wi-fi hot spots were widely used, officials say

Apr. 17—Wi-Fi hotspots sent up at first stations by Daviess Fiscal Court have been successful in helping people stay connected during the pandemic, county officials said.

There are no plans to take the hot spots down, Daviess Judge-Executive Al Mattingly said Friday.

A hope for the future is that broadband internet service can be expanded to rural households, but that process will take years, Mattingly said.

In November, county officials announced hotspots at seven volunteer fire stations. At the time, schools across the state were going to virtual learning because of the pandemic. The hotspots are available for use through a user name and password posted at the firehouses. The hotspots have a filter to block the use of inappropriate websites.

Jordan Rowe, communications coordinator for Fiscal Court, said 300 gigabytes of data has been used at the hotspots since they were installed.

"I believe that has been a good program," Rowe said Thursday. "Students are back in an in-person setting at most schools, but during the months they were at home working virtually, I think it was a nice benefit."

The hotspots were used the most in November and December. The most used hotspots were at the Masonville Fire Department, which had 40% of the total usage since January, Yelvington Fire Department, which had 30%, and Moseleyville Fire Department, which had 18%.

Hotspots are also at St. Joseph, Knottsville, Stanley and Utica fire departments.

Daviess County Public Schools and Owensboro Public Schools also established Wi-Fi hotspots for students. Steve Burton, co-chief information officer and computer operations manager for Daviess County Public Schools, said the district doesn't have data on usage of its hotspots, but the sites were utilized.

"I can tell you because of tech questions we received that while they were mainly used by DCPS students throughout the year, we did have some OPS students using them as well as some OCTC students," Burton said.

Jared Revlett, public information officer for OPS, said the district did have Wi-Fi available through the schools and through a vehicle, and the district distributed 200 mobile hotspots to students.

"We settled on the 200 number based on a survey ... trying to get an idea of how many people didn't have access" to Wi-Fi, Revlett said. The devices were able to connect students to school work.

"We didn't have any issues with anyone saying they didn't work," Revlett said. "What the district was able to provide for through the mobile hotspots provided what the students needed to get their assignments done."

Mattingly said there are no plans to disconnect the hotspots at the fire stations. "The cost for those spots was fairly nominal," he said.

"David Smith (the county's director of legislative services) came up with the idea and it worked," Mattingly said.

"The real question is, what can we do to make things better for folks in their homes, without having to get in their cars to get a Wi-Fi connection," he said.

A meeting was held in Henderson last week, Mattingly said, for officials from counties in the Kenergy service area to discuss broadband, but he was unable to attend. Leslie Barr, Kenergy's spokeswoman, said the meeting was for regional county officials to meet representatives from Conexon, which consulted with Kenergy on broadband issues and was awarded $21.396 million for broadband from the FCC's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund.

In the recently ended General Assembly session, state lawmakers allocated $300 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars to broadband deployment across the state.

"If anything happens and all of that money becomes available ... you're looking at six, eight or 10 years" for broadband to be expanded enough to meet the county's need, Mattingly said.

James Mayse, 270-691-7303, jmayse@messenger-inquirer.com, Twitter: @JamesMayse

James Mayse, 270-691-7303, jmayse@messenger-inquirer.com, Twitter: @JamesMayse