Mower County won’t be part of Gig Austin, at least not right now.

The Mower County board unanimously voted down a request from Vision 2020’s Gig Austin committee to provide some funding to the $32.9 million project to bring a data fiber network throughout the city of Austin and some surrounding rural areas.

Commissioner Jerry Reinartz, who serves on the finance committee, said a main reason was that the project is Austin-centric, and it doesn’t include much of the rural areas.

“Our main concern I guess is not only cost and the impact to the taxpayers, but the fact that this proposal so far only covers the Austin School District, and as county board members of course we represent the entire county,” Reinartz said. “Sixty percent of our tax money comes from the agricultural properties, so I would have a hard time supporting anything at this time toward this project, as worthwhile as it might be.”

Commissioner Tim Gabrielson, who also serves on the finance committee, said his biggest concern was that the county currently can’t keep up with road and bridge maintenance. He argued the board should focus on roads before supporting something like broadband.

The county has frequently discussed shortfalls in road and bridge funding from the state, and it’s begun discussing a possible half-cent sales tax to fill the gap.

“We’ve got to take care of our own infrastructure for the county before we do anything else,” Gabrielson said.

Austin Utilities, which would own the network infrastructure, is expected to contribute about $3 million. Gig Austin will also include a third-party telecommunications company, which will contribute $14.5 million as the entity that will provide services, run billing and other things.

That leaves $15.5 million, which Vision 2020 volunteers hope will be funded through contributions from the city, Mower County, Austin Public Schools, the Hormel Foundation and more.

Vision 2020’s Community Wide Technology Committee has been seeking county support for Gig Austin, the nonprofit initiative to bring high-speed Internet and massive amounts of data to the city through a gigabit-level network. Though the Austin City Council spoke favorably of the plan at a meeting a few months ago, no government agencies have yet decided to commit money to Gig Austin.

Austin Utilities General Manager Nibaur noted that Gig Austin has focused on bringing fiber as a way to “future proof” the local Internet infrastructure, meaning it’d have the capacity for the future.

However, the board asked questions about the need for the project. Commissioner Polly Glynn asked about the advantage of fiber over simple wireless Internet. Nibaur noted fiber, unlike traditional wireless, brings with it the speed and capacity to carry the data need today and that’s expected to be needed tomorrow.

“The wireless doesn’t have that capacity,” Nibaur said. “To download a movie, for example, on the wireless system versus the fiber, it would be night and day difference.”

When Glynn asked if wireless would one day have the capacity to match fiber, Nibaur said it’s not impossible, but it’s many years off.

The fiber wire brings assured capacity for growth, as he said they could expand off that fiber wire.

“We think as a committee that’s the best solution for today as well as tomorrow for this community and beyond,” he said.

Commissioner Tony Bennett also voiced concerns that some of the survey results may be a bit skewed. The survey asked a question about whether people would support the project if it did not use taxpayer dollars. Now Gig Austin is seeking taxpayer dollars through local government after other funding sources fell through.

“At that point we didn’t think we’d be attempting to solicit taxpayer’s money, but as we’ve moved through this project and been asked to look at other partners, we’re doing our due diligence, basically asking our other potential partners if there’s any interest in the project,” Nibaur said.

Some fiber network is already available in select areas in the county, including with some of the schools and even with a few areas.

“There’s fiber in the community,” Nibaur said.

But to Nibaur and Gig Austin, the key is expanding the infrastructure.

“The key is the rest of the general business population as well as the residential,” Nibaur said.

However, the need can be a tough sell. Bennett noted he uses several computers and makes frequent online uploads through his business Old 218, but he noted he’s never had issues with his Internet speeds.

“I have a hard time understanding the need for it for an average citizen,” Bennett said.

Nibaur noted that’s a good point, as many citizens likely get by with their current Internet with few problems. But Nibaur said that as more people use the Internet for data such as movies and photos, they’ll see the demand for fiber-like Internet grow.

“Current systems can’t manage that today, that future that we see,” Nibaur said. “So we are building for the future.”

Gabrielson also voiced concerns that it didn’t include the other county schools, and he indicated businesses may eventually address the need for a fiber network.

“I think other businesses that are presently in business are going to take care of this problem,” he said.

Bennett suggested the committee ask for a certain dollar amount in the future after it just asked for monetary support now without stating a specific request.

County Coordinator Craig Oscarson added that some wording during meetings suggested the committee was asking for a large fund of money, which cause a “pretty big sticker shock.”

“If we had a different request as far as a dollar amount, it might have been something the finance committee could have looked at within the budget — maybe, maybe not,” Oscarson said. Board Chairman Mike Ankeny told Nibaur that Tuesday’s vote wasn’t a hard ‘no’ in that said the committee shouldn’t hesitate to come back before the board in the future, especially if the project eventually includes more rural residents and schools.

“It’s not like we’re shutting the door completely,” Ankeny said.

Nibaur noted they are looking at future opportunities and could one day come back before the board.