(Arnolds Park)– A study into the possibility of launching a municipal utility that would provide cable television, telephone and high speed internet service in several lakes area cities is about to enter a new phase.
Arnolds Park City Administrator Ron Walker is a member of the Opportunity is Calling Committee. He says surveys and interviews with several businesses were recently completed. Now, Walker says representatives of Black and Veatch of Overland Park, Kansas, the company hired to do the study, will start contacting randomly selected residents via telephone. Walker says the surveys will last anywhere from five to seven minutes each. He urges anyone getting such a call to participate, saying the feedback is very important for the OCC committee to consider when it comes time to decide whether or not to proceed. Walker says the residential surveys will continue through the summer. He says the committee will review the findings sometime in the fall.
In November of 2003 residents in Arnolds Park, Okoboji, Orleans, Spirit Lake and Wahpeton voted overwhelmingly to look into the possibility of establishing a municipally-owned cable communications or television system. Under Iowa law, 50 percent voter approval is needed to proceed. It received 79 percent approval.
