The unincorporated Hunt Club Farms neighborhood near Gurnee Mills is pleading with Lake County officials for assistance in providing high-speed internet. The question is whether or how that would be possible. However, considering all options is good news for locals who complain that the service is frequently insufficient when internet access has grown crucial.
Kent Kasten said, “At least we’ve got traction and they’re providing us options, perhaps, to solve the situation. It could offer us some leeway. Residents of the 120-home neighborhood have complained about slow internet service as the county contemplates extending its 10-year franchise arrangement with Comcast, which expires in October.
Negotiations between the county staff and the state’s attorney’s office and a recommendation for renewal for an additional ten years followed. The county board’s finance and administrative committee, which makes recommendations to the full county board, is where Kasten, who claims to have been working on the matter for three years, is presenting his case.
When we went into lockdown due to the epidemic, he stated, “this was brought into the forefront immediately.” According to him, the need for high-speed service has increased as more adults work from home and more students take online courses.
According to Kasten, Comcast has disqualified the neighborhood because it is farther than the mile from a link the firm will extend service free of charge. According to him, the homeowners association lacks the required $400,000 and there is no support for establishing a separate service area where each property owner would contribute a share of the overall cost.
Residents, led by Kasten, have requested assistance to deal with the issue. The committee was scheduled to discuss the franchise agreement extension on Thursday. However, the committee unanimously decided to postpone the topic until its meeting on October 6 rather than recommending a course of action to the whole board for consideration on Tuesday.
County board member Carissa Casbon said, “At the very least, I want to ensure there’s nothing we can do. The subdivision is in her district, although she is not on the committee. She continued, “The environment has changed. “High-speed internet is no longer a luxury with COVID,”
Steve Rice, an assistant state’s attorney, acknowledged that he was unable to estimate the county’s potential leverage but pointed out that retaining expert legal counsel to pursue the matter would incur unknown costs. Other options include finding out if federal broadband or American Rescue Plan Act money may be appropriate or seeking a knowledgeable opinion from someone who specializes in franchise agreements of this kind.
There are some things that only the government can do, according to committee member Michael Danforth. We should conduct some research, he suggested. “We are responsible,” Hunt Club Farms, which was constructed in the middle of the 1980s, offers DSL service through a different operator, although Kasten stated performance suffers depending on how far it is from the distribution point. There must be a compromise that the county, we, and Comcast can accept to provide service, he added.
