{"id":86,"date":"2015-06-12T19:04:48","date_gmt":"2015-06-12T19:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.purebroadband.org\/?page_id=86"},"modified":"2016-09-08T20:44:42","modified_gmt":"2016-09-08T20:44:42","slug":"lyndon-township","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/lyndon-township\/","title":{"rendered":"Lyndon Township"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pl-86\"  class=\"panel-layout\" ><div id=\"pg-86-0\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" ><div id=\"pgc-86-0-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-86-0-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-editor panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"0\" ><div\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tclass=\"so-widget-sow-editor so-widget-sow-editor-base\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t>\n<div class=\"siteorigin-widget-tinymce textwidget\">\n\t<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><b>Lyndon Twp. is working on bringing a millage proposal to build a fiber-to-the-home network for all Lyndon Twp. residents<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h3><b>If the millage passes Lyndon Twp. residents would have high speed internet access in\u00a01 year<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h3><b>Project will cover both private and public roads.<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Pulse-Broadband-Lyndon-Township-Feasibility-Report-6-13-16.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Lyndon Township feasibility study:<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Conducted by Pulse Broadband and can be found here. Prior to selecting Pulse to conduct the study, Michigan Broadband Co-op leadership, along with Lyndon Twp supervisor Marc Keezer, conducted telephone interviews with two contractors, as well as with leadership members of communities that have already worked with the contractors<\/li>\n<li>Study revealed a number of factors that needed to be discussed with the Lyndon Township Resdients.<\/li>\n<li>Pulled Together a<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><b>We need your help to proceed on the next steps:<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Michigan Broadband Co-op is an all-volunteer organization.\u00a0 In the months leading up to the millage vote, we need all hands on deck to make sure Lyndon residents have all the information they need\u00a0 Please\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/join\/\">join us<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/donate\/\">volunteer<\/a> to help us get the word out.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Vote! If we are to be successful in this project, it is crucial that every resident interested in quality internet service votes yes!<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0If you are not yet a registered voter, please register \u00a0 You can register by mail\u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/documents\/MIVoterRegistration_97046_7.pdf\">www.michigan.gov\/documents\/MIVoterRegistration_97046_7.pdf<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div id=\"pg-86-1\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" ><div id=\"pgc-86-1-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-86-1-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_siteorigin-panels-postloop panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"1\" >\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\n<article id=\"post-453\" class=\"post-453 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-frontpage category-lyndon\">\n\n\t\n\t<div class=\"entry-main\">\n\n\t\t\n\t\t<header class=\"entry-header\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/2016\/09\/08\/lyndon-twp-feasibility-study\/\" title=\"Permalink to Lyndon Twp Feasibility Study\" rel=\"bookmark\">Lyndon Twp Feasibility Study<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-meta\">\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted on <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/2016\/09\/08\/lyndon-twp-feasibility-study\/\" title=\"8:23 pm\" rel=\"bookmark\"><time class=\"entry-date\" datetime=\"2016-09-08T20:23:38+00:00\">September 8, 2016<\/time><\/a><time class=\"updated\" datetime=\"2016-09-08T20:47:10+00:00\">September 8, 2016<\/time> <span class=\"byline\"> by <span class=\"author vcard\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/author\/admin\/\" title=\"View all posts by admin\" rel=\"author\">admin<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-meta -->\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/header><!-- .entry-header -->\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-content\">\n\t\t\t\t<div id=\"pl-453\"  class=\"panel-layout\" ><div id=\"pg-453-0\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" ><div id=\"pgc-453-0-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-453-0-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-editor panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"0\" ><div\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tclass=\"so-widget-sow-editor so-widget-sow-editor-base\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t>\n<div class=\"siteorigin-widget-tinymce textwidget\">\n\t<p>Please find the feasibility study for Lyndon Township below. This study may be updated as we receive new information.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Pulse-Broadband-Lyndon-Township-Feasibility-Report-6-13-16.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-454 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/lyndontwpfeasibility-223x300.png\" alt=\"lyndontwpfeasibility\" width=\"223\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/lyndontwpfeasibility-223x300.png 223w, http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/lyndontwpfeasibility.png 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 223px) 100vw, 223px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-content -->\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/article><!-- #post-453 -->\n\n\t\n\t\t\n<article id=\"post-367\" class=\"post-367 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-frontpage category-lyndon\">\n\n\t\n\t<div class=\"entry-main\">\n\n\t\t\n\t\t<header class=\"entry-header\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/2016\/06\/14\/town-hall-presentation\/\" title=\"Permalink to Town Hall Presentation\" rel=\"bookmark\">Town Hall Presentation<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-meta\">\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted on <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/2016\/06\/14\/town-hall-presentation\/\" title=\"10:24 pm\" rel=\"bookmark\"><time class=\"entry-date\" datetime=\"2016-06-14T22:24:36+00:00\">June 14, 2016<\/time><\/a><time class=\"updated\" datetime=\"2016-09-08T20:47:46+00:00\">September 8, 2016<\/time> <span class=\"byline\"> by <span class=\"author vcard\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/author\/admin\/\" title=\"View all posts by admin\" rel=\"author\">admin<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-meta -->\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/header><!-- .entry-header -->\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-content\">\n\t\t\t\t<p>Thanks to all who attended our Town Hall Meeting! For those of you interested you can find the slides for the presentation here:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/townhall0616\">http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/townhall0616<\/a>. Lyndon Twp. residents will be receiving a survey regarding some of the information discussed at the Town Hall Meeting in their tax bills. A link to that survey will also be posted to this site so stay tuned!<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-content -->\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/article><!-- #post-367 -->\n\n\t\n\t\t\n<article id=\"post-365\" class=\"post-365 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-frontpage category-lyndon\">\n\n\t\n\t<div class=\"entry-main\">\n\n\t\t\n\t\t<header class=\"entry-header\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/2016\/06\/14\/lyndon-township-moving-forward-with-community-input-on-broadband\/\" title=\"Permalink to Lyndon Township Moving Forward with Community Input on Broadband\" rel=\"bookmark\">Lyndon Township Moving Forward with Community Input on Broadband<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-meta\">\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted on <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/2016\/06\/14\/lyndon-township-moving-forward-with-community-input-on-broadband\/\" title=\"10:23 pm\" rel=\"bookmark\"><time class=\"entry-date\" datetime=\"2016-06-14T22:23:47+00:00\">June 14, 2016<\/time><\/a><time class=\"updated\" datetime=\"2016-09-08T20:43:58+00:00\">September 8, 2016<\/time> <span class=\"byline\"> by <span class=\"author vcard\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/author\/admin\/\" title=\"View all posts by admin\" rel=\"author\">admin<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-meta -->\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/header><!-- .entry-header -->\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-content\">\n\t\t\t\t<p>Following the successful completion of a feasibility study for a township-wide fiber optic network, Lyndon Township is moving forward to seek community input on the project.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What We Learned from the Feasibility Study<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The feasibility study showed the long term viability of the project, contingent upon a millage to fund startup costs<\/li>\n<li>The study also revealed a number of areas that will require additional research and key decision points that require community input before a final millage amount can be requested<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Status of the Millage Proposal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Based upon the outcomes noted above, the evaluation committee has recommended that the millage issue be deferred from the original target of the August 2<sup>nd<\/sup> election.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Next Steps<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Michigan Broadband Cooperative, a grass-roots community group, will host a town hall meeting on June 13<sup>th<\/sup> at 7pm, at the Washington Street Education Center auditorium to seek community input.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Background<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lyndon Township, like many townships in Western Washtenaw County, is significantly underserved in regard to broadband internet access. This can come as a surprise to residents from other areas that are well served by broadband \u2013 given how important broadband is for participation in modern society.\u00a0 It is hard to understand how significant parts of the region can be without it.<\/p>\n<p>Yet Lyndon Township is not an outlier when it comes to broadband challenges \u2013 more than 8,500 households in Western Washtenaw County do not have access to broadband service. Maribeth Hammer, a Lyndon Township resident, described the situation: \u201cWe live in Washtenaw County, within twenty miles of the University of Michigan, seven miles from downtown Chelsea and cannot get a high-speed internet connection. Our out-of-town guests and our returning-home college students are amazed that they cannot complete many ordinary Internet related tasks.\u00a0 My husband has to drive to the Chelsea District Library to complete many of his work requirements as well as my children with their college and job-hunting connection needs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lyndon Township and the surrounding areas are lacking broadband coverage from existing cable and DSL providers, due to population densities that are too low to support the return on investment rates that these companies require.\u00a0 These providers have indicated that they have no plans to expand coverage into the unserved areas of Western Washtenaw County.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Michigan Broadband Co-op<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In response, residents without adequate\/affordable broadband service have come together and formed a non-profit organization called the Michigan Broadband Cooperative to build and operate community-controlled broadband infrastructure. This cooperative will work with municipalities to build a high-speed fiber optic to the home network that can provide next-generation broadband access to all residents. This initiative will operate as an open access network, over which private internet service providers can compete to provide service on a level playing field.<\/p>\n<p>It is part of the Michigan Broadband Cooperative\u2019s mission to demonstrate the viability of providing equal access to high speed broadband services and create equal opportunity to students, workers, and businesses irrespective of where they choose to locate. Further, the Michigan Broadband Cooperative seeks to develop a model that can be scaled for other communities and ultimately to light up all unserved areas of Michigan with high speed broadband access that will wipe out the homework gap for students of all ages and catalyze economic expansion.<\/p>\n<p>The recently completed feasibility study paid for by Lyndon Township provides in-depth information regarding the estimated costs and revenues associated with building a fiber-to-the-home network in Lyndon Township, and shows the long term viability of such a project. The evaluation committee identified a number of decision points affecting the financial model that require input from the community. \u201cWe felt that we were getting into areas where we would be making sweeping decisions that would affect our neighbors \u2013 so we decided that we shouldn\u2019t rush into things, and instead take the time to have conversations and do the research to get it right,\u201d said Gary Munce, long time Lyndon Township resident and a Director of the Michigan Broadband Cooperative. The Cooperative is taking this next step in facilitating a community dialogue by hosting a town hall meeting on June 13<sup>th<\/sup> at 7pm at the Washington Education Center auditorium.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Others Have Gone Before Us<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This Lyndon Township effort follows similar successful municipal and grass roots broadband efforts from around the country, including a recently completed fiber-to-the-home project in Sebewaing, Michigan \u2013 the state\u2019s first \u201cGigabit Village\u201d. Each Sebewaing household now has access to connection speeds of up to one gigabit per second, as well as standard broadband speeds that are more affordable and reliable than comparable cable broadband offerings.<\/p>\n<p>While Lyndon Township is the first in Washtenaw County to take action toward improving their own broadband situation, Dexter and Webster Townships are also moving ahead with feasibility studies for fiber optic networks. Ben Fineman, President of the Michigan Broadband Cooperative, says: \u201cBroadband has become an essential service, and it\u2019s unacceptable for so many households in our area to lack access. Our communities are filled with people who are more than willing to step up and help to build broadband, but none of us can do it on our own. We formed this cooperative as a way for community members to work together and take action to solve the problem ourselves \u2013 no one else is going to do it for us. We\u2019re encouraging anyone without broadband who wants to get involved to contact us and see how you can help.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-content -->\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/article><!-- #post-365 -->\n\n\t\n\t\t\n<article id=\"post-363\" class=\"post-363 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-lyndon\">\n\n\t\n\t<div class=\"entry-main\">\n\n\t\t\n\t\t<header class=\"entry-header\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/2016\/06\/14\/great-news-things-are-under-way\/\" title=\"Permalink to Great News \u2013 Things are under way !!\" rel=\"bookmark\">Great News \u2013 Things are under way !!<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-meta\">\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted on <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/2016\/06\/14\/great-news-things-are-under-way\/\" title=\"10:22 pm\" rel=\"bookmark\"><time class=\"entry-date\" datetime=\"2016-06-14T22:22:48+00:00\">June 14, 2016<\/time><\/a><time class=\"updated\" datetime=\"2016-09-08T20:32:30+00:00\">September 8, 2016<\/time> <span class=\"byline\"> by <span class=\"author vcard\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/author\/admin\/\" title=\"View all posts by admin\" rel=\"author\">admin<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-meta -->\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/header><!-- .entry-header -->\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-content\">\n\t\t\t\t<p>Following the unanimous approval by the Lyndon Township Board to fund a feasibility study to explore construction of a fiber optic network in Lyndon Township, a selection process was undertaken to identify a contractor to carry out the feasibility study.<br \/>\nThe Michigan Broadband Co-op, along with Lyndon Township Supervisor Marc Keezer, conducted telephone interviews with representatives of several Michigan and midwest communities that have completed feasibility studies as part of their broadband projects. The information collected from these interviews led to the selection of Pulse Broadband to conduct the feasibility study for Lyndon Township.<br \/>\nA contract has been signed with Pulse Broadband and the study is underway, with an expected completion date of May 2. As soon as results of the feasibility study are in, we will provide further updates.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-content -->\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/article><!-- #post-363 -->\n\n\t\n\t\t\n<article id=\"post-230\" class=\"post-230 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-lyndon category-press-releases\">\n\n\t\n\t<div class=\"entry-main\">\n\n\t\t\n\t\t<header class=\"entry-header\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/2016\/03\/23\/lyndon-broadband\/\" title=\"Permalink to Lyndon Township Residents Voice Strong Support for Broadband Proposal\" rel=\"bookmark\">Lyndon Township Residents Voice Strong Support for Broadband Proposal<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-meta\">\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted on <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/2016\/03\/23\/lyndon-broadband\/\" title=\"5:12 am\" rel=\"bookmark\"><time class=\"entry-date\" datetime=\"2016-03-23T05:12:49+00:00\">March 23, 2016<\/time><\/a><time class=\"updated\" datetime=\"2016-09-08T20:28:24+00:00\">September 8, 2016<\/time> <span class=\"byline\"> by <span class=\"author vcard\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/author\/admin\/\" title=\"View all posts by admin\" rel=\"author\">admin<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-meta -->\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/header><!-- .entry-header -->\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-content\">\n\t\t\t\t<div id=\"pl-230\"  class=\"panel-layout\" ><div id=\"pg-230-0\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" ><div id=\"pgc-230-0-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-230-0-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-editor panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"0\" ><div\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tclass=\"so-widget-sow-editor so-widget-sow-editor-base\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t>\n<div class=\"siteorigin-widget-tinymce textwidget\">\n\t<p><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/lyndon_032216.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-235 size-medium alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/lyndon_032216-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/lyndon_032216-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/lyndon_032216-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/lyndon_032216-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/lyndon_032216.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>LYNDON TOWNSHIP, Michigan \u2013 March 23<sup>rd<\/sup>, 2016 - Following strong support from residents, the Lyndon Township Board has approved funding for a feasibility study to explore construction of a fiber optic network to provide township-wide access to broadband internet. At the March 22<sup>nd<\/sup> meeting of the Lyndon Township Board, over seventy enthusiastic township residents came to voice their support for the feasibility study proposal, which was then approved unanimously by the Board.<\/p>\n<p>Lyndon Township, like many townships in Western Washtenaw County, is significantly underserved in regards to broadband. This can come as a surprise to residents from other areas that are well served by broadband \u2013 given how important broadband is for participation in modern society.\u00a0 It is hard to understand how significant parts of the region can be without it. Yet Lyndon Township is not an outlier when it comes to broadband challenges \u2013 more than 8,500 households in Western Washtenaw County do not have access to broadband service. Maribeth Hammer, a Lyndon Township resident, described the situation: \u201cWe live in Washtenaw County, within twenty miles of the University of Michigan, seven miles from downtown Chelsea and cannot get a high-speed internet connection. Our out-of-town guests and our returning-home college students are amazed that they cannot complete many ordinary Internet related tasks.\u00a0 My husband has to drive to the Chelsea District Library to complete many of his work requirements as well as my children with their college and job-hunting connection needs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lyndon Township and the surrounding areas are lacking broadband coverage from incumbent cable and DSL due to population densities that are too low to support the return on investment rates that these companies require.\u00a0 These providers have indicated that they have no plans to expand coverage into the unserved areas of Western Washtenaw County. In response, residents without broadband service have come together and formed a non-profit organization called the Michigan Broadband Cooperative to build and operate community-controlled broadband infrastructure. This cooperative will work with municipalities to build a high-speed fiber optic to the home network that can provide next-generation broadband access to all residents. This initiative will operate as an open access network, over which private internet service providers can compete to provide service on a level playing field.<\/p>\n<p>It is part of the Michigan Broadband Cooperative\u2019s mission to demonstrate the viability of providing equal access to high speed broadband services and create equal opportunity to students, workers, and businesses irrespective of where they choose to locate. Further, the Michigan Broadband Cooperative seeks to develop a model that can be scaled for other communities and ultimately to light up all unserved areas of Michigan with high speed broadband access that will wipe out the homework gap for students of all ages and catalyze economic expansion.<\/p>\n<p>The feasibility study that the Lyndon Township Board has approved will provide in-depth information regarding the estimated costs and revenues associated with building a fiber-to-the-home network in Lyndon Township. Based on the results of this study, Lyndon Township and the Michigan Broadband Cooperative will pursue funding options to build the network, which may include private investors, grants, municipal bonding and a millage initiative.<\/p>\n<p>This Lyndon Township effort follows similar successful municipal and grass roots broadband efforts from around the country, including a recently completed fiber-to-the-home project in Sebawing, Michigan \u2013 the state\u2019s first \u201cGigabit Village\u201d. Each Sebawing household now has access to connection speeds of up to one gigabit per second, as well as standard broadband speeds that are more affordable and reliable than comparable cable broadband offerings. Additionally, Laketown Township in Allegan County on the west side of the state has successfully completed a fiber to the home feasibility study and is moving ahead with a millage initiative on their May ballot to fund the project.<\/p>\n<p>While Lyndon Township is the first in Washtenaw County to take action toward improving their own broadband situation, the Michigan Broadband Cooperative is working with other Western Washtenaw municipalities to move forward with similar efforts in those areas. Ben Fineman, President of the Michigan Broadband Cooperative, says: \u201cBroadband has become an essential service, and it\u2019s unacceptable for so many households in our area to lack access. Our communities are filled with people who are more than willing to step up and help to build broadband, but none of us can do it on our own. We formed this cooperative as a way for community members to work together and take action to solve the problem ourselves \u2013 no one else is going to do it for us. We\u2019re encouraging anyone without broadband who wants to get involved to contact us and see how you can help.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>ABOUT THE MICHIGAN BROADBAND COOPERATIVE<\/p>\n<p>The Michigan Broadband Cooperative is a grass roots, non-profit organization with the mission of building open access, community controlled broadband infrastructure for unserved and underserved areas of Michigan. Formed in March of 2015, the Michigan Broadband Cooperative is governed by a volunteer board of eight Washtenaw and Jackson County residents. To date, over one hundred and fifty individuals have joined in the Michigan Broadband Cooperative\u2019s mission.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-content -->\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/article><!-- #post-230 -->\n\n\t\n\t\t\n<article id=\"post-444\" class=\"post-444 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-lyndon\">\n\n\t\n\t<div class=\"entry-main\">\n\n\t\t\n\t\t<header class=\"entry-header\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/2016\/02\/08\/lyndon-twp-washtenaw-broadband-survey-results\/\" title=\"Permalink to Lyndon Twp -Washtenaw Broadband Survey Results\" rel=\"bookmark\">Lyndon Twp -Washtenaw Broadband Survey Results<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-meta\">\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted on <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/2016\/02\/08\/lyndon-twp-washtenaw-broadband-survey-results\/\" title=\"7:18 pm\" rel=\"bookmark\"><time class=\"entry-date\" datetime=\"2016-02-08T19:18:46+00:00\">February 8, 2016<\/time><\/a><time class=\"updated\" datetime=\"2016-09-08T20:46:28+00:00\">September 8, 2016<\/time> <span class=\"byline\"> by <span class=\"author vcard\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/author\/admin\/\" title=\"View all posts by admin\" rel=\"author\">admin<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-meta -->\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/header><!-- .entry-header -->\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-content\">\n\t\t\t\t<div id=\"pl-444\"  class=\"panel-layout\" ><div id=\"pg-444-0\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" ><div id=\"pgc-444-0-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-444-0-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-editor panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"0\" ><div\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tclass=\"so-widget-sow-editor so-widget-sow-editor-base\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t>\n<div class=\"siteorigin-widget-tinymce textwidget\">\n\t<p>Lyndon Township residents responded to a survey conducted by Washtenaw Broadband initiative. Here are some of the finding.s\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Lyndon-Twp-BB-Survey-Copy.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-105 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Lyndon-Twp-BB-Survey-Copy-197x300.png\" alt=\"Lyndon Twp BB Survey Copy\" width=\"197\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Lyndon-Twp-BB-Survey-Copy-197x300.png 197w, http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Lyndon-Twp-BB-Survey-Copy-768x1167.png 768w, http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Lyndon-Twp-BB-Survey-Copy-674x1024.png 674w, http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Lyndon-Twp-BB-Survey-Copy.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 197px) 100vw, 197px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-content -->\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/article><!-- #post-444 -->\n\n\t\n\t\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lyndon Twp. is working on bringing a millage proposal to build a fiber-to-the-home network for all Lyndon Twp. residentsIf the millage passes Lyndon Twp. residents would have high speed internet access in\u00a01 yearProject will cover both private and public roads.Lyndon Township feasibility study:Conducted by Pulse Broadband and can be found here. Prior to selecting Pulse [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-86","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":459,"href":"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/86\/revisions\/459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/staging.mbcoop.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}