{"id":106511,"date":"2016-02-25T19:15:27","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T02:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-city-council-approves-internet-project\/"},"modified":"2016-02-25T19:15:27","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T02:15:27","slug":"cortez-city-council-approves-internet-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-city-council-approves-internet-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez City Council approves Internet project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"SkyWerx
SkyWerx installed a microwave link over Wolf Creek Pass in November. The city of Cortez and Montezuma County have hired SkyWerx to build a wireless connection from Durango to Cortex that will act as backup to the existing fiber system.<\/span>Courtesy of SkyWerx<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The city\u2019s Internet connection will get more reliable this summer after a Pagosa Springs company builds a new wireless connection for local government use.<\/p>\n

The Cortez City Council unanimously approved the Internet project on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The cost of bringing the wireless service to the city and Montezuma County is about $57,000. The county would pay for about $28,000.<\/p>\n

The city already has a fiber network that serves government functions including police dispatch, Montezuma County jail and Southwest Memorial Hospital, said City Manager Shane Hale.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it goes down, it really could be life or death,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The fiber network did go down for five hours on Jan. 31, which shows the need for a backup system, according to city documents.<\/p>\n

The company the city hired, SkyWerx builds high-speed microwave links, and it is working on expanding their network through out the region.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s wireless network is tied into a fiber system that is separate from the one the town of Cortez uses.<\/p>\n

Montezuma County is also exploring expanding fiber connectivity in rural areas and the city would like to work with them on that project, Hale said.<\/p>\n

This project currently in its very early stages, and the county does not have a plan to fund it yet, said planning director LeeAnn Milligan.<\/p>\n

At Tuesday\u2019s meeting, the city council also approved a memorandum of understanding with the Montezuma Inspire Coalition. The city is a member of the coalition of 18 groups that was formed last fall.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s purpose is to help kids explore the outdoors and discover activities they enjoy. The effort received a $75,000 planning grant from Great Outdoors Colorado to help support the work.<\/p>\n

The city has committed $2,000 in matching funds to the project, but this was separate from the memorandum.<\/p>\n

After the 18-month planning period, which will involve the community and youth, the coalition could be eligible for $1 million to $5 million additional grant funding to build projects or fund programs, said Dean Palmquist, the parks and recreation director.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope we\u2019re very diligent and careful that we continue a lot of these programs after the grant is up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

mshinn@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Council signs understanding with Montezuma Inspire Coalition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[318,13,275],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-106511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez-municipal-government","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-internet"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106511"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=106511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}