MANSFIELD — The local group pushing for a broadband internet expansion along U.S. 30 across Ohio plans to seek $20 million for the project in the next state budget.
“The Route 30 project is still moving forward with the hope that it will be in the governor and lieutenant governor’s budget,” Richland County Commissioner Tony Vero said.
“We have gathered the necessary letters of support and it is our plan to personally meet with the lieutenant governor and the Ohio Director of Development Director (Lydia) Mihalik sometime in January to formally request that (funding) for either all or a portion of the project be put in the governor’s budget.”
Local leaders first publicly broached the subject during a Richland County Board of Commissioners meeting in January 2024. They planned to seek information from providers interested in constructing broadband infrastructure between Wooster and Lima, including Richland, Ashland and Crawford counties.
A year ago, Vero said the group reached out to BroadbandOhio to begin discussing the project that officials said could be key to future economic development in the region — and also assist with the nation’s first Air National Guard Cyberspace Wing launched at Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport.
BroadbandOhio is a part of the Ohio Department of Development, whose mission is “to bring high-speed internet access to every Ohioan and build a best-in-class broadband network in Ohio.”
“It might be a little much, but we want to make sure the entire project is funded. So we are asking for $20 million so that it is covered from east to west in the entire state along Route 30,” Vero said last week. ‘We hope it would be cheaper than $20 million.
“If they have another pot of money that could fund the project (other than the state’s biennial budget), we’re certainly not going to say no.”
(Above is a map showing the U.S. 30 route across Ohio and potential clients that could be served by a broadband expansion project.)
In 2024, Vero credited North Central State College President Dr. Dory Diab for getting the ball rolling with discussions in 2023.
“He approached me (at a Richland Community Development Group) meeting about a year ago. He said, ‘Hey, commissioner, are you going to earn your paycheck and start expanding broadband in Richland County?’” Vero said in January 2024.
Vero said the comment helped to spur a local group that included him, Diab, then-Richland Area Chamber & Economic Development President Jodie Perry (now Mansfield mayor) and Barrett Thomas, the chamber’s economic development director.
During the meeting with county commissioners a year ago, Diab said broadband access in today’s world should be considered like any other necessary utility.
“Internet and more specifically, high-speed broadband capacity, is becoming like a utility, like electricity and water,” he said.
“Whether it’s for business, whether it is for the population in the county and things like that, you cannot do without it anymore. And as far as the campus is concerned, it’s about teaching, it’s about research, it’s about online delivery,” Diab said.
The U.S. 30 plan would include a point-of-presence, perhaps near or on the 179th Cyberspace Wing.
A point-of-presence (POP) is a point or physical location where two or more networks or communication devices build a connection from one place to the rest of the internet.
OANG Col. Gregg Hesterman, who headed up the 179th’s conversion from a flying wing, said a year ago the unit’s new mission requires improved internet access to allow connectivity with mission partners.
“We’re going to require numerous networks,” Hesterman said. “Mostly everything will be unclassified, but we’ll also have classified or encrypted networks going through that broadband backbone as well.
“So just to be able to get the most capabilities as close to the installation as possible is absolutely key.”
Thomas said last year the broadband expansion is a business recruitment tool.
“We’re in conversations now with other companies that are interested in being in that same area, interested in very large internet connections that need a lot of broadband, a lot bandwidth and a lot of speed.
“So (the broadband expansion project) will certainly be a tool that helps us say, ‘This is the right place to be, instead of any of the other 10 places you’re looking. You want to be here in Richland County,’ ” Thomas said.
Tim Bowersock, then the City of Mansfield economic development director, agreed and said it would also help businesses already the city and county.
“Their demands are for broadband services have continually grown over the years. Most of them are doing more business online, do more meetings online. So any improvement to the network has got to be good for local businesses,” said Bowersock, who retired near the end of 2024.