Holiday Island residents are leading the way in Carroll County letting state officials know the need for broadband internet access.

Communities in rural areas around the state have been surveyed in recent months about broadband access as the state of Arkansas decides how much money to grant from funds recently approved to help those without reliable internet service.

At the regular monthly meeting of the Holiday Island City Council on Tuesday, Aug. 15, Holiday Island Mayor Dan Kees reported that 245 survey cards, along with spreadsheet information that includes online surveys, have recently been submitted.

“I believe the rest of the county was at 144 at the time,” Kees said, adding that when Holiday Island information was submitted there were only four responses from Carroll County residents outside the Holiday Island or Eureka Springs areas.

“There’s probably some reasons for that,” Kees said. “When you get out in the rural areas it’s hard to connect with people to solicit feedback on a survey. If you’re not going door-to-door you’re going to have a hard time getting feedback.”

In addition, the mayor told council members, he feels that Berryville and Green Forest currently already have better access to high-speed internet capabilities.

“Berryville and Green Forest aren’t in that bad of shape right now for broadband,” Kees said. “They’re right on [Highway] 62 and they’ve had fiber [optic] running down 62 for some time now, plus part of Eureka Springs — at least part of it.

“The real need … fiber optic cable broadband need is Holiday Island and Eureka Springs so that’s where most of the surveys came from.”

Kees credited Sandy Martin, chair of Eureka Springs Mayor Butch Berry’s Task Force on Economic Development who also is spearheading broadband committees in the area.

“Sandy was the one compiling that information,” Kees said. “She wears many hats over in Eureka Springs and is doing an excellent job of trying to pull the county together and put together a convincing argument to the state. In fact, the Carroll County Broadband Consortium has been held up by the state to all the other counties as the correct way to approach a project.

“So, hopefully that will gain us some momentum when it comes time to actually hand out money.”

Kees told council members that the state should receive a report from Carroll County by the end of August.

“[Martin] was planning to have the report done to hand out to the state by the end of the month, and after that we’ll be in a wait-and-see mode,” he said. “I don’t know if there is a timeline on when they’re going to decide how they’ll allocate the money.

“We’ll be in a wait-andsee mode, but certainly know we’ve done our part.”