By Darlene Bush Tucker
News Editor

"Level the playing field" was the phrase of the day at a recent USDA grant presentation in Monroe that heralded the coming of broadband Internet access to Dodson.

The access is expected to take less than a year to implement, and will mark the first time such access has been available in Dodson--the home base of The Piney Woods Journal, as well as a small cluster of forestry and logging related businesses and retail establishments.

Mike Taylor, state director for USDA Rural Development in Louisiana, was the first one to use the phrase, saying that broadband access would help make the village of fewer than 400 residents competitive from the key standpoints of education, commerce, and health and safety.

"It will level the playing field," he said.

Tony Downs, a communications specialist with Bayou Internet, used the phrase as well, saying that not only will access be free to critical service providers such as police and fire personnel, but that private residents will be able to get access at the same cost (about $50 a month residential and $100 for businesses) as if they lived in a city.

"It's a pretty attractive price," Downs said.

U.S. Congressman Rodney Alexander, representing Louisiana's 5th Congressional District, joined Taylor and a host of others March 21 in Monroe to present a $758,227 Community Connect Broadband grant to Bayou Internet. Bayou Internet, in a 15 percent matching contribution, is donating about $130,000 in goods and services, Downs said.

"It's good access, good equipment, all top of the line," Downs said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development funds will support a full package of bringing the new broadband service to Dodson. In addition to providing access to fire and police, the funding will bring broadband to a new modular community center in Dodson, the Town Hall, the Family Medical Center, the parish library branch and the high school.

Alexander, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said his first request in committee was about Rural Development needs in his area, which includes parts of 22 parishes and extends all the way north to the Arkansas border.

"A lot of people don't realize the importance of Rural Development; they think it's just about farms, but it's more than that," Alexander said. "The agriculture department makes money available for areas that need infrastructure, whether that's communications or some other form. We are in a global market where if you have Internet, just from your home garage you can compete with anyone. I'm glad the USDA and Mike Taylor saw the need."

Alexander drew laughter from a crowd outside Bayou Internet numbering about 50 when he said, "I wish all the bureaucrats were as easy to work with as Mike Taylor."

Jason Pierce, communications manager with Bayou Internet, commended Dodson's pro-active efforts to get the broadband grant.

"Other places will benefit from it because we have to go through them to get to Dodson," he said. "The people in Dodson put the work in to help secure the grant, and they put their best foot forward to get us the information we needed."

Among the rewards for their efforts will be 10 free Internet stations in the modular community center that will be open to residents 12 hours a day, six days a week. The town will also get a Web site featuring a community board.

Taylor, who noted that the technology coming to Dodson didn't even exist five years ago, said the 10 Internet stations will allow residents to learn the technology, take a class online or maybe even start an Internet business.

"It will give them the tools to maybe start a business and stay in the community," Taylor said. "Imagine life without Internet when you have to have it to be competitive. This is your tax dollars coming back home. Rodney (Alexander) has tremendous support from Rural Development."

Downs said the link-up will go from a tower back of Bayou Internet's Monroe offices to a large broadcast tower already in place in Sterlington. ("We need that height," Downs said.) From there, the signal will bounce to a relay tower to be built in Chatham and then to a 400-foot end-user tower to be built in Dodson.

The entire process is expected to take less than a year, perhaps in as few as 90 to 180 days. The resulting Internet will be fast enough to watch a video on or even make possible streaming-video classes that dial-up would make intolerably slow, Pierce said.

(Bayou Internet will offer a full range of services to private subscribers, including Web site building and hosting, email accounts and so on.)\par }{\plain Downs said the results will be as real as the people who need the access.

"We talked to an 80-year-old lady who wanted to do eBay but couldn't on dial-up; now she will be able to," Downs said.

State Rep. Jim Fannin was on hand and said that as a business owner, he understands what good Internet access means to businesses in rural areas.

par }{\plain "It's pretty simple; you can compete worldwide," he said.

Taylor said the rural programs he is helping administer are important to supporting a healthy economic picture across the nation.

"This broadband grant supports President Bush's goal to provide all Americans with access to broadband technology," Taylor said. "Since its inception four years ago, the Community Connect Broadband Grant program has provided 109 grants and invested more than $39 million to provide broadband service to local communities."

USDA Rural Development provides a full range of rural development credit services in rural Louisiana. The Louisiana Rural Development state office is located at 3727 Government St., Alexandria LA 71302. The number there is 318-473-7921. Visit http://www.rurdev.usda.gov for further information on USDA Rural Development's loan and grant programs.

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