Free internet coming to Jasper’s campground


Tim Totman, of TNT Services in Pipestone, pulls conduit through the ground using a bullet plow as Keith Dailey feeds it into the ground off the spool Tuesday morning, April 6 at Marilyn DeBates Park in Jasper. Once the conduit was in, they would pull a fiber line through it, which would be used to provide wifi for the campground located at the park. K. Kuphal

The campground at Marilyn DeBates Park in Jasper will soon offer campers a new amenity — free wifi.
The wireless internet access was made possible by a $75,000 Blandin Broadband Communities grant that Rock County received in 2018.
“We completed a number of projects with this grant money, including installing wifi in every campground in Rock County,” said Rock County Community Library Director Calla Bjorklund Jarvie, who was the administrator for the grant.
Tim Totman, of TNT Services in Pipestone, have the fiber lines that will provide the internet to the Jasper campground in by the end of the day on Tuesday, April 6.
Alliance expected the internet service to be available within the next two weeks. Once it’s available, people staying at the campground will be notified on their devices that they must agree to terms and conditions to access it. No password will be needed.
Rock County Administrator Kyle Oldre said the Jasper campground is the last portion of the grant project to be completed. Other elements included wifi hotspots to check out from the library, wifi on two activity buses for each school district, an instructional video library from Alliance Communications, free PCs for low-income residents, a social media optimization project for businesses and non-profits, technology for Southwest Youth Services and more. Oldre said the internet at the other campgrounds in the county where it’s already been connected is fast enough for video streaming.
He said the intent of the Blandin grant was to build upon the internet capabilities brought about by a $5 million Minnesota Border-to-Border Broadband grant Rock County used to bring high speed fiber internet to every household in the county, including those on the south end of Jasper. That project was completed in 2017. Oldre said Rock County contributed $1 million to that project and Alliance contributed about $7 million.