On Friday, March 31st, County and State officials gathered to celebrate a grant awarded to Current Incorporated for $9,456,045.00 to provide much of Oregon County with broadband internet.
B.J. Tanksley, The Director of the office of Broadband for the state of Missouri spoke and stated that this was one of the biggest grants they were able to give out. Nearly $7.5 million will go to broadband infrastructure and nearly $2 million of pole replacement funding to make up the total. Tanksley gave details on the grant requests through this process. They received over 320 applications that totaled over five times the amount of money they had available. He went on to thank Oregon County, as they invested $250,000 in this project, showing how important this project is to the county. Tanksley thanked Current for their efforts in running fiber to provide broadband internet to those areas in need. The funds were available due to the American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Next, Danny Thomas, owner of Current Incorporated, spoke on all of the hurdles that they faced through the process. While they were very capable of completing the work, there was a ton of paperwork and legal matters to navigate to make this happen. He said these funds would help Current get a lot further and a lot faster in providing broadband to rural areas. He thanked his entire staff, who were all present for the celebration, for making it possible to take on this project, as it wouldn’t be possible without everyone doing everything to keep the cash flow going, to start this project as they have expanded from electrical and HVAC, adding on the broadband and wireless internet services.
Allen Stockey spoke on how Current High Speed came to be. He said it all started one day as he yelled down the hallway “Turn off the YouTube so I can read a news article on the internet please”. He said, “ I felt like a bad dad, but I had a new challenge in life”. At that point, he stated that he continued to tell Danny, “Hey man, we have a problem to solve in this area.” Stockey said it was very humbling, as it has been a dream of his that is coming to reality.
Jake Marcum is the fiber appointment manager of Current overseeing all aspects of fiber appointment, including mainline construction, optical splicing, and in-user installation. He thanked local and state officials, Oregon and Howell County commissioners, MoDOT, Howell-Oregon Electric, and Federal officials for the help as without it this project “would still be a dream”. The ultimate goal of Current Electric is to provide high-speed internet access to everyone with a Howell-Oregon Meter. While it sounds like, and is, a very daunting task, with the help of the aforementioned entities, and the hard work and dedication of the employees, they can, and will, accomplish their goals.
Current, Inc. has 1730 active customers between their wireless and fiber optic networks. They have 262 wireless towers and over 114 miles of mainline fiber built. This grant will make it possible to build a reliable network to reach many people who have never had any good reliable internet options. They plan to build over 341 miles of fiber in the next three years reaching places like Rover, Many Springs, Thomasville, Woodside, and even people who live alongside the Eleven Point River. After completion, they will have high-speed fiber in front of 1510 more homes, businesses, and acre institutions in Oregon County.
Oregon County Presiding Commissioner David Stubblefield took the podium next. He stated that he met Danny Thomas and staff members at the courthouse and thought “this sounds like a real good idea, but it’s going to take a long time”. “I thought, if we can get a little money from the county, they can put in a few more places and generate a little revenue because that’s what it takes”. He thanked Current for the job they are doing to help the people of Oregon County “ Because we have so many people that has no internet, no broadband.” When the epidemic was going on he spoke about many times people had to gather at homes with internet to complete the requirements for the remote learning that was taking place. Stubblefield ended by saying “you are making it possible for more and more people to receive broadband internet and I want to thank you very much”.
Danny Thomas concluded by thanking Howell-Oregon Electric for being a great help, supporting them from day one, and have made a lot of this possible when it would not have been otherwise.
