WAWARSING – Town Councilmember Terry Houck is hoping that town residents who are currently without access to broadband or wired cable services will come forward, and let their voices be heard.

"We're urging that the residents get a hold of us at town hall through e-mail, or by stopping in, or calling us," says Houck.

As Time Warner liaison with the town council, Houck is gathering information about properties within the town that have yet to be connected to broadband services because of their remote distance from more developed areas.

"In the township, there is a rule of twenty houses per mile — anything twenty and above, Time Warner will pay for [to hook up cable access], on their dime. Anything under that, the Town of Wawarsing has to pay or the subscriber has to pay," says Houck. These areas with less than twenty houses per mile are without access to many of the technological amenities enjoyed by residents in more densely populated areas — services such as cable, FIOS, EVDOS, cellular coverage, and other wireless technologies.

The project is being called a rural broadband "last mile" initiative, and Houck will be giving the information over to Ulster County. The county is working with all twenty towns in Ulster, with the ultimate goal of creating a proposal that will be submitted to the federal government, which will hopefully be able to funnel some stimulus money into the project.

Many of the users who live in these outlying areas — like Lackawack and Cragsmoor, for instance — have been depending on satellite internet and cable providers such as Wild Blue. Satellite service is somewhat more susceptible to outages due to inclement weather, but because of the high cost of laying new cable lines and the twenty houses per mile rule, satellite is the only option for more distant town residents who want internet access and cable.

Under the "last mile" project, however, several properties would be connected all at once, rather than on a case-by-case basis, thereby reducing costs. The scope and scale of such an undertaking would also presumably qualify the initiative for stimulus funding, since it would be improving the infrastructure of a highly valued utility within the town, not to mention that it would provide greater access to emergency services and contacts.

If you live within the Town of Wawarsing and your property has yet to be hooked up for broadband or high-speed access, get in touch with the town by April 3. You can call Town Hall at 647-9142, or send a snail-mail to Town of Wawarsing, P.O. Box 671, 108 Canal Street, Ellenville, NY, or e-mail wawsupervisor@hvc.rr.com to express your interest. Please state your name, physical address and phone number when contacting the town.

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