Press Release
Custer County Economic
Development Corporation
WESTCLIFFE, Colorado
—February 7, 2022
The not-for-profit (CCEDC) Custer County Economic Development Corporation regrets to inform you of the demise of the Custer County Broadband Infrastructure Expansion (six tower) Project. The county commissioners, in a meeting January 31st, voted unanimously against the submittal of the final grant request to the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) for the project of approximately $2 million. The technical and cost elements of the grant request were completed by CCEDC. The reason for denying the EDA grant submittal was that the tower locations had not yet been approved by the county Planning Commission (PC) and the county Building and Zoning Authority (BZA) had not approved the height variations. This was in spite of the fact that all six of the planned towers would be exclusively owned and operated by and for Custer County, a fact that the commissioners have known throughout the life of the project.
This plan was proposed in both the 2015 and 2019 Five County, Broadband Strategic Plan. This effort was supported and pursued by CCEDC, the Southern Colorado Economic Development District (SCEDD), the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), the Colorado Broadband Office (CBO)and the EDA Denver Regional Office. This public-private partnership (PPP), when completed, would have supported quality broadband internet service to nearly 80 percent of rural Custer County internet users.
The volunteers of CCEDC have worked at no cost for the last seven years as consultants to the county on this project and its supporting tasks. Additionally, the Southern Colorado Economic Development District (SCEDD) has provided consulting services to the county, seeing the Custer County broadband tower project as a model for the twelve other counties in its district to provide true broadband services to their rural communities.
CCEDC had completed all the technical requirements to support the EDA grant request. Therefore, it will cease providing any further consulting services to Custer County for this project. We wish the county well in providing a county-wide solution to the lack of broadband capability for its rural citizens.

###

Comments
(Editor/GG: Many thanks to our County Commissioners for correctly assessing that this $2 MILLION dollar, tax payer funded boondoggle is going the way of the dinosaurs. It was obsolete from the beginning. From the start the “business analysis” rationalizing these six monstrous towers was horribly flawed. Note that the county would have been liable to maintain the towers. This taxpayer cost was supposed to be covered by various internet/broadband providers leasing space on the towers. However, after years of marketing to the internet provider community, NOT ONE provider has signed a contract to use the towers and only ONE indicated that they MIGHT be interested in ONE tower. Why put up the towers if nobody is going to use them? So who would get the bill? Custer taxpayers as usual.
And overriding the whole obsolete concept of ground tower broadband, we see Starlink and two other companies currently rolling out low level, extremely high speed broadband satellites with service that is cheap and extremely reliable AT NO COST TO US AS TAXPAYERS. The local reviews of Starlink are extraordinary.
Plus look at the list of entities that Bogle lists as supporting this “project”: every one is a government entity, with government employees, using OUR money and NOT theirs, to fund local, often totally useless, “projects”. Like this one.
This would have been $2 million dollars down the rat hole. The BOCC did good. NOTE: The project remains in limbo.)