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LAGRANGE â With construction season just around the corner, Mark Leu, the CEO of LaGrange County REMC, said his staff is busy making preparations to begin building a new fiber-optic network that will bring high-speed internet to rural LaGrange County.
âWeâre gearing up for construction,â Leu said. âWeâre in the process of lining up contractors and completing the final design and procuring all the materials. At this point, weâre looking at starting construction on our backbone in the early part of June.â
REMC announced it was planning to jump into the world of high-speed internet provider when it sought a $5 million grant from LaGrange County and its Major Moves Fund. The company said it needed that money to help it arrange for the rest of the financing it would need to create the new network.
ANGOLA â Mark Leu no longer thinks of LaGrange County REMC as just an electric membership cooperative that serves a rural community.
âWe no longer consider ourselves an electric cooperative. We are now an electric and communications cooperative,â said Leu, CEO of LaGrange County REMC.
Thatâs the new reality of two electric cooperatives that had humble beginnings of simply working to string wire to rural LaGrange and Steuben counties so those who lived in the country â mainly farmers â had electricity.
Both REMCs are starting to work on providing fiber optics to their members so broadband connectivity becomes a reality out in areas that, much like electricity during the Great Depression, was dark.