Counties seek Internet connection

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Trumbull County has signed on with five other Northeast Ohio counties to participate in an assessment of the ability of each county to tap into high-speed Internet connections.

A community that is well-wired for such connections can better provide services to its citizens, said Tom Miller, technology executive with OneCommunity, a Cleveland-based non-profit organization leading the project.

The federal government awarded OneCommunity $44.8 million in stimulus funds in 2010 to add nearly 1,000 miles of fiber-optic cable in 20 Northeast Ohio counties.

The goal was to connect about 800 community institutions, including hospitals, schools and government entities, to the high-speed broadband network, according to national news accounts at the time of the grant award.

Already, 80 percent of the hospitals in Northeast Ohio are connected, including Akron Children’s Hospital in Boardman, Miller said.

Tony Grech, senior account executive for OneCommunity and a Howland resident, said fiber-optic cable has been installed in Trumbull County, but he’s not at liberty to say where.

Bill Miller, director of the Trumbull County Planning Commission, which is handling the matter for commissioners, said there would be no cost to the county to participate in the assessment.

The planning commission handles planning, grant-writing and land-use issues for the county.

If better fiber-optic cables and better Internet access result from the assessment, that would enable government offices and schools to work more productively, Miller said.

“If the grant is approved, we would do a study and determine what the needs are,” Bill Miller said.

Tom Miller of OneCommunity said one of the goals of the assessment would be to find ways for government to provide more shared services, such as courthouses in various locations sharing information over a network.

They also might be able to take depositions for civil suits by way of videoconferencing, he said.

Or government agencies might be able to share one online payroll system, he added.

Tom Miller said he expects the six counties — Stark, Cuyahoga, Summit, Lorain, Medina and Trumbull — to be successful in their application to the Ohio Department of Development’s Local Government Innovation Fund for $100,000 for the assessment.

The assessment would inform each county of ways it could provide enhanced shared services and discuss the cabling improvements that would be needed.

Each county then would apply for grants or loans to carry out the project, Tom Miller said.

The grants will be awarded by June 1, and a contract to have the 6-month assessment done would occur as early as July, Tom Miller said.