It's Unanimous...Adair Approves Municipal Telecom

The smile on the Adair water tower is just a bit wider today after voters approved a referendum Tuesday to create a municipal telecom utility in the western Iowa community.

In fact, every person who cast a vote on "Public Measure A" - all 86 of them - voted yes. While 100% approval is as good as you can get, it's not the first time that's happened. The telecom referenda in Bedford (2008) and Vedic City (2002) also had 100% approval. Neither of those two communities have actually built networks, a fact that shows a successful referendum is just one step in the process. In fact, 50 Iowa towns and cities have approved a municipal telecom utility but don't have networks. That number is likely to go down, however, as three of those communities - New Hampton, Maquoketa, and Charles City - are planning to conduct feasibility studies.

As for Adair, they have been in discussions with Casey Mutual Telephone, their neighbor to the east, about a public-private partnership to build and operate at fiber network in Adair. We'll update you on the progress in Adair.

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