Public forum set on Internet issues

WINCHESTER — Residents who want to tell Frederick County about issues they have with their Internet service will have a public forum to do so this week.

Frederick’s Broadband Management Team will meet at 1 p.m. Thursday in the county Administration Building at 107 N. Kent St. in the city.

The gathering was originally set for late October, but had to be rescheduled because of Hurricane Sandy. The original makeup date was last week, but it had to be changed again because of a scheduling conflict.

The meeting will allow the county to receive input on how to use a $25,000 state planning grant from the Department of Housing and Community Development — which, according to information technology director Walter Banks, is intended to help the locality come up with ways to improve its broadband Internet access.

The county has been conducting broadband tests since last year on the connection speeds in different areas — the results of which will be used in the planning phase, Banks said.

He previously said that a large rural area and changing IT needs are just two of the many reasons why parts of Frederick County have poor or nonexistent Internet coverage.

Kyle Meyer of the Department of Housing and Community Development, who is in charge of monitoring how the planning grant is administered, will attend the meeting.

— Contact Matt Armstrong at marmstrong@winchesterstar.com