JCE Co-op has received the first installment of funding from Whiteside County for fiber buildout in northern portions of the county.

In late December, Gary Camarano, Whiteside County’s economic development director, presented JCE Co-op President & CEO Mike Casper with a $1 million check. This check represents the initial payment of the $3 million the county committed to use as local matching funds for a Connect Illinois Round 3 grant from the state of Illinois. The county’s match comes from ARPA funds received.

The co-op is using the $69.9 million Connect Illinois funds to deploy high-speed fiber internet to areas of Whiteside, Carroll, and Jo Daviess County. Jo Daviess County contributed another $50,000 in local funds.

Camarano noted that Whiteside County’s commitment of local funds was one of the keys to the grant. JCE Co-op is using the Connect Illinois grant to construct 1,200 miles of underground fiber to areas in Whiteside, Carroll, and Jo Daviess counties, enabling the connection of more than 5,100 households, farms, and businesses.
In September of 2022, the Whiteside County Board voted to commit the $3 million in ARPA funds to deploy fiber, collaborating with JCE Co-op to pursue funding available to accomplish the project. The vote came after the county had participated in the Accelerate Illinois Program, a collaborative effort by the Illinois Office of Broadband, University of Illinois Extension, and the Benton Institute for Broad and & Society. The ConnectWhiteside Committee met over a 14-month period to discuss connectivity challenges and issues, best practices, and community survey results.

“The public survey cemented that we really do need this,” Camarano said. “There were enough people who were not being fully served, and then the pandemic showed us how important this was. Kids had to be dropped off at a local McDonald’s for a hotspot to get online to do their assignments. Homes with more than one person using multiple devices, and no one was getting a good connection.”

Camarano said the area is further ahead than other communities in bringing fiber to underserved and unserved areas. “We’re doing the right things, choosing the right partners, taking the right approach, and it’s showing. One of those milestones is the actual transfer of local matching funds into the hands of JCE as they meet their milestones and projections,” he said, “It is going to come to great things for the community. If you look at precision ag, manufacturing, remote work, remote education, telehealth, and quality of life, this will be a game changer for us.”

Camarano noted that plans are already in motion to address workforce concerns, and apprenticeship programs and committees are forming to discuss how to reach different users of robust fiber, such as telehealth. He cited the possibility of employers dedicating conference areas to telehealth devices to not only save travel times but also improve the availability of care, possibly leading to better health outcomes and fewer emergency room visits.

For farmers, enhancements through precision ag translate to increasing revenues and crops per acre, the use of less fertilizer for properly applied fertilizer and pesticides, and better water treatment.

“The facts are proving this to be a game changer,” he said. “We’re catching up to the rest of the country as far as productivity….What has moved America forward since the formation of the country, things like the Erie Canal, opening up of the West, railroads, telegraph, telephone, electrification, and interstate highways; this is one of those next steps that will fully connect rural America and bring our productivity to levels we haven’t seen.

Jesse Shekleton, JCE Co-op’s director and general manager of broadband, added that the synergies between the cooperative business model, collaborating with a local unit of government like Whiteside County, and the co-op’s care and concern for community “couldn’t be stronger and more obvious. We are putting as much energy into initiatives like this because we know it’s not even about the fiber itself. It is more about what our rural residents and members do with the fiber to enhance the quality of life and drive rural prosperity.”

According to Casper, this collaboration is also important from an economic development standpoint. Already a beautiful location to visit or move back to, the region’s appeal increases with the availability of fiber, he said.
“We’re not a place, we’re a solution,” Camarano added. “We’re a place to raise a family, a place for business where you can be connected to the larger markets without all the difficulties from all the congestion. We’re an hour and a half from the Chicagoland marketplace, we’re in the Great Lake manufacturing hub, and now we’re fully connected to the world.”