Public officials and private-sector professionals agreed Thursday in Cortez that Colorado needs a consolidated plan for broadband internet infrastructure.
Club 20, a Western Slope advocacy group, held summer committee meetings Thursday and Friday at Cortez City Hall. During the business affairs committee meeting, CenturyLink Local Government Affairs Director Abel Chavez said Colorado lacks a statewide vision to bring broadband infrastructure to its citizens.
“We need to work together and get aligned,” he said. “We need to seize the moment with broadband.”
Colorado Office of Economic Development Executive Director Fiona Arnold agreed that the state needs a plan, as well as a leader who can align state and local interests. She told committee members to expect a centralized resource within the governor’s office dedicated to broadband within the next few months.
Arnold said the broadband divide between Front Range communities and rural Colorado is nearly at a “crisis” stage. The state will need to go after federal funding in a big way, she said. Policymakers need to be consistent, and government entities need to support private broadband providers when it’s not economical for them to develop infrastructure in rural areas.
Chavez said there needs to be a change in tone on the issue toward facts, metrics and evidence to propel success in the broadband industry. Arnold said a shift has already started, with communities stepping up to change their own broadband futures. “We need to drop the old narrative and move forward,” Arnold said.
Several legislators also attended the meeting. State Rep. Bob Rankin, R-Carbondale, told Arnold he appreciated her office’s leadership with broadband development.
State Rep. J. Paul Brown, R-Ignacio, said Colorado has lots of potential for resource development, but some issues could derail the momentum. The state has fallen behind with road infrastructure, and water resources on the Western Slope continue to dwindle.
The state needs leadership from the governor’s office on those issues, Brown said.
“We have so much potential, and we’re hurting ourselves,” he said.