Blackfoot representatives speak at Chamber meeting

SUPERIOR – The possibility of bringing higher speed internet to more parts of Mineral County was a major topic of discussion during the Chamber of Commerce meeting last week.

The meeting featured guest speakers Joel Block, vice president of customers and marketing, and Frank Creasia, vice president of network operations, from Blackfoot Telephone Services. David Lawrence arranged for Block and Creasia to come to the meeting as part of their normal practice of checking in on Blackfoot’s customer base.

“We try to get out into the communities that we share and serve,” said Block.

Creasia said Blackfoot tries to provide state-of-the-art services to rural communities. Because modern businesses have a higher dependency on data services, bringing high-speed services and improved connectivity to customers is a high priority of the company.

According to Creasia, over 800 miles of fiber-optic network cables buried underground bring high-speed internet service to the Mineral County communities. These cables connect to boxes, which house Blackfoot’s equipment and transmit internet signals.

Creasia explained the problem with expanding internet speed, and the costs to Blackfoot’s customers, was that internet speeds depend on the distance to equipment boxes. The shorter the cables, the faster the internet speed.

It was further explained that Blackfoot’s priority is getting high-speed internet to the largest number of people possible all at once. They can not get it everywhere and people who are located in more remote locations tend to be harder to get the needed equipment for high-speed internet.

“The equipment is rather expensive,” said Creasia. “We try to serve the more densely populated areas first, since there are more people there.”

Also discussed in the meeting was the need for a chairperson for the Schoolhouse Rock Car Show in June. Ann Troutmen, chamber secretary, explained that the people who normally put the car show on would not be doing it this year.

Troutmen said that the old organizers would help if a new chairperson for the event was found.

It was noted the only way the car show would happen would be if the Chamber of Commerce took it over. With the event bringing tourism to the area and being such a good event, it was agreed by the chamber representatives that it would not be good to lose it.

“It takes time for things to grow sometimes,” said Troutmen. “That’s why I’d hate to see it bailed out at this time.”

Troutmen then suggested the possibility of the car show being put on in conjunction with the airport’s open house. As the open house also featured old cars, it was felt the merge would not be a big change to what was expected. Troutmen pointed out that people would also bring old planes to the airport, adding a new aspect to the event.

The chamber members pointed out a lot of benefits to combining the events. Among the benefits was more space for the car show, while not taking up too much space in town. Bringing in tourism and having them stay around for a few days was also mentioned, where the old model of the air show meant it was over before people could enjoy it.

“They pull in and pull out and we want to figure out how to keep them in our county awhile longer,” said Troutmen.