Federal act threatens rural Internet project in Sauk County

[postulater]

The use of stimulus money to expand high-speed Internet service in Sauk County has run into a roadblock because of federal guidelines dictating workers' wages that local officials say would exceed $40 an hour.
Reedsburg city officials say it puts the project at risk, and they might have to return a $5.2 million stimulus grant aimed at expanding broadband service in a rural area.

...

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act included about $7 billion in grants, loans and loan guarantees to extend broadband to underserved rural areas. It's compatible with President Barack Obama's goal of making high-speed Internet available to 98% of Americans in the next five years. In Reedsburg, the problem stems from the federal Davis-Bacon Act, which requires contractors working on federally assisted projects to pay workers no less than the locally prevailing wage for similar projects. Contractors putting fiber-optic cable in the ground would have to pay wages comparable with highway and high-voltage power line projects because broadband is too new to have its own wage category, Mikonowicz said. That could boost the project's cost to $10.5 million to $13 million, much more than Reedsburg anticipated.

"We took it out for bids and found that we were about $3 million over budget," Mikonowicz said, even with the city contributing several million dollars. Reedsburg officials say they could hire local laborers to put fiber-optic cable in the ground for about $16 an hour without much in fringe benefits. They would pay more for machine operators and others with specialized skills.

"If we ran an ad for those positions, we would have people beating down the door for them," Mikonowicz said.
Under the Davis-Bacon Act, they would expect to pay laborers almost $40 an hour, including benefits, and nearly $50 an hour, with benefits, for machine operators. "We would probably have to walk away from the project," Mikonowicz said.

http://www.jsonline.com/business/115336449.html

[annabanana]

1. "A bunch of people earning a decent wage would DISRUPT things. .

We can't have that....

[MineralMan]

2. A bunch of people earning no wage at all would disrupt things

even more, and create nothing. A middle ground must be found here, and elsewhere, that employs people on such projects. It is not a binary issue.

[MineralMan]

3. For those who do not know where Sauk County is,

the state is Wisconsin. I wish everyone would identify the state when posting stories from local newspapers. It would help a great deal.

[postulater]

5. oops, sorry.

[MineralMan]

4. Here are some facts about Sauk Co., WI.

Source: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/55/55111.html

Population (2009): About 60,000
Median home price (2000): $107,000
Median Household Income (2008): $51,809
Percentage of Whites: 97.1%

This is a rural county, home of the Wisconsin Dells, and a helluva lot of farming. Few people there earn anywhere near $40/hr.

[hfojvt]

6. I don't think of it as rural

for one thing, it is ex-urb of Mad-town. For another, the population density is fairly high about 70/square mile.

What I consider rural, is more like Hand County, SD - 2.5 people per square mile and the largest town being Miller, with about 2500 people. The nearest cities to Miller are Pierre and Huron, both less than 15,000 people - not much bigger than Baraboo.

I used to live in the next county west. When I decided to move, I looked at going to Baraboo, where my dad's cousins lived, but could not find affordable housing there. To me though, $16 an hour is pretty good money and $40 an hour is kinda ridiculous.