Cleveland approves Wi-Fi Financing

CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER - CLEVELAND, Ohio -- City Councilman Kevin Kelley's self-proclaimed "Greatest Project in America" -- a publicly financed wireless broadband network that covers all of his West Side ward -- could be up and running late this summer.
Council approved the project 17-1 Monday night with Councilman Brian Cummins voting against the measure.
Cleveland expects to spend $900,000 over the next three years to build and maintain the network, which will cover 4.5 square miles of Kelley's Ward 13, which almost solely consists of the Old Brooklyn neighborhood. The ward includes about 11,000 households and 3,000 businesses.
Kelley is providing $400,000 from discretionary funds allocated to his ward. The city is paying the remaining cost using unspent technology and capital improvement money.
The councilman has been working on the project for more than a year. The idea of building the network came to him as he mulled ideas about what he could do to help his ward.
Given Cleveland's digital divide -- a study showed that only half of city residents had access to the Internet -- Kelley said a broadband network would have a far broader impact on his ward than a streetscape project.
"I'm absolutely ecstatic it's gotten this far," Kelley said in an interview. "I know great challenges remain, but my goal is that every household and business has a high-speed connection in Ward 13."