Advocates of broadband expansion followed up on recent communications problems with renewed motivation to bring broadband technology to all San Juan County businesses and residents.

The meeting room at Orcas Power and Light Cooperative’s San Juan Island office was jammed Nov. 21 with about 50 islanders who wanted to see how the co-op board of directors would respond to the week-long CenturyLink telephone and internet outage, which occurred earlier this month.

The OPALCO board grabbed the brass ring, unanimously endorsing a resolution directing management to speed up deployment of broadband infrastructure to San Juan County.

The board resolution, written and moved by San Juan Island board member Glenna Hall, authorized use of OPALCO money in an effort that Board Chairman Chris Thomerson estimated might cost as much as $12 million over the next three years. The resolution specified that “Deployment will be supported and funded by OPALCO assets, including equity and rates.”

The resolution was accompanied by more than an hour of public input and almost an hour of board discussion.

Some members of the public, such as Wally Gudgel from Orcas Island, Mark Anderson and Mark Madsen of San Juan, and Victoria Compton of the San Juan County Economic Development Council, were unequivocal advocates of bringing a fully functional, modern broadband communications system to the county.

Anderson was emphatic: “This is about every part of the economy and our demographics. The internet is the great enabler of our century and every person, every child, needs to have access to the technology that only some of us have now.”

Others, such as Steve Ludwig and Dwight Lewis, both from Lopez, were skeptical. Ludwig was contemptuous, calling the board “stooges” and saying the matter should be subject to a vote of the membership.

Proponents and opponents reminded the board and OPALCO executives (General Manager Randy Cornelius and Assistant General Manager Foster Hildreth listened intently) that OPALCO’s financial well-being must not be damaged. A statement from board member Vince Daucinius that the long-term cost might be as much a $72 million elicited several variations of the question, “Where’s the money coming from?”

Daucinius allowed that “financing is the issue, not technology. We’ll need a sensible, phased approach that will take a while to do. We’ll need patience to stay with it for the long haul, and we need to work with the business community to make it a shared resource.”

Board member Bob Myhr added, “We don’t want the misperception that we’ll do it alone. It must be understood that OPALCO won’t be alone. There will be other funding – grants and so forth.”

Cornelius insisted that the co-op was up to the job.

“We can handle this in a fiscally responsible way, and we will work with Rock Island and CenturyLink to build out our robust fiber system,” he said. “Rates will have to go up to pay for it, but the board is offering something we can do.”

OPALCO also released spending and budget figures for broadband, stating that $1.26 million has been spent on broadband expansion since 2011 and that $1.7 million has already been budgeted for design, permitting and licensing for “middle mile expansion.”

“We will continue to grow like a co-op does,” said Hildreth about the resolution. “Just as when electricity was being rolled out in the late 1930s we can quickly hook up those who are closest and then expand the system to connect more members incrementally as our data communications network reaches further and further out.”