MONTICELLO - The Sullivan County Legislature last year approved a measure to bring high-speed wireless broadband to the Monticello area utilizing the county's emergency communications tower next to the new jail.

Now, that project will be expanded to the rest of the county, particularly to areas that are underserved.

Chief Information Officer Lorne Green, who as leader of the Division of Information Technology Services (ITS) has spearheaded this initiative, presented to the legislators during the Management and Budget Committee meeting on Thursday.

He said they completed a wireless broadband predictive study on all 12 towers in the county, which includes nine that were put in place for emergency communication, one that is privately owned, as well as one in Monticello by the landfill and one in Rock Hill.

Based on that study, broadband would be made available to a potential 44,779 residential customers, which is about 60 percent of the county's population.

Similarly, based on the study, 60 percent of the businesses in the county would be potentially covered.

Green said the challenge will be covering the remaining 40 percent.

“The theory behind this is to put the infrastructure in place, provide a lower-cost alternative, use the revenue from that to expand into the areas that are never going to be covered by the larger carriers, and make up the shortfall,” Green remarked.

The towers provide an estimated 3.5-mile radius of coverage area. The biggest challenge in getting coverage is terrain and foliage.

Legislators expressed enthusiasm for the project, saying it's a much-needed service.

“I think utilizing our existing tower space for this technology to provide to the residents of the county is phenomenal,” said Legislator Michael Brooks. “With the advent of what's happened this year with the pandemic, the need for bandwidth and high speed [internet] has shown us how far behind we are in so many areas.”

District 2 Legislator Nadia Rajsz, who has been calling for broadband along the Delaware River corridor, said this is a “godsend” for students who are using virtual learning and for people using telehealth.

Legislature Chairman Rob Doherty, whose district covers the towns of Bethel, Tusten, Cochecton and Highland, said, “If we're going to grow the western side of the county, this is an absolute must.”

The next steps will be to create a Local Development Corporation to oversee the rollout and to secure grant funding. Green said the project will come at limited to no cost to the county.

There will also be work sessions held in the future to focus on areas that aren't covered and how to expand to them.

“It's critical to the health and wellbeing of our county, because we're having a big influx of, if not second homeowners, fulltime residents who are going to work from this area and only commute to the city as needed,” said Legislator George Conklin III, Chairman of the Management and Budget Committee.