Congressman Guthrie holds rural broadband discussion

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Congressman Brett Guthrie held a Rural Broadband Roundtable at the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce Monday.

The event featured telecommunications stakeholders and members of the agricultural community, as well as local and state officials and business leaders, to discuss how to improve internet services in rural areas.

The Builders Association and the Realtors Association were in attendance and voiced concern about the lack of broadband access in rural areas deterring growth.

Without essential internet access, students are getting left behind at school and cannot complete many class assignments.

Magistrate Ron Cummings pointed out that Broadband has become an essential utility and said this issue needs to be addressed in Warren County

Warren County Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon made an offer to the companies present that if they have a business plan that will help improve this issue, he will work with them to make the plan a reality.

“If there’s a problem that we can solve, we want to solve it. With a public private partnership… we want to help them help us,” Buchanon said.

Senator Mike Wilson added, “it is definitely something that is on our radar, but it is very limited on what we can do as a state.”

While the roundtable discussion did not result in a solution, Guthrie said he feels that now he knows the questions he needs to ask and the details he needs to know in order to tackle this issue in Washington.