Monterey No Longer Applying For Wi-Fi Grant

Monterey will no longer be applying for a grant to help bring free Wi-Fi to the downtown area.

Technology Committee Chairman Nathan Walker said he decided to not to apply for the grant because the city lacks an IT department.

“What I didn’t take into account, and I talked to several different cities about it, is that when you are setting one of these things up each one of these cities had a designated IT guy,” Walker said. “Once we get it up who is going to service this thing? Who do we have that’s going to maintain this equipment?”

Walker said it would cost the city between $30,000 to $40,000 a year to hire an IT staff.

“We were already putting out $25,000 on the grant anyway,” Walker said. “To add another $30,000 to that, I didn’t see that being a $50,000 viable project for Monterey.”

The board of mayor and aldermen voted earlier this month the apply for the $52,500 Appalachian Regional Commission grant. The deadline to apply for the grant was September 14th.

“I think we need a lot more other things besides that right now,” Walker said.

Walker said the city can revisit the free Wi-Fi recommendation sometime next year.