Letter to the editor: County didn’t keep word on fiber headquarters

Talk about it

In August of 2010 I signed a letter of intent on the purchase of my building, Steves Plumbing and Heating, for the Lake County broadband project.

I was told it probably would not happen until the spring of this year.

When the project changed managers I was still assured that my building was still what they wanted. I attended a few meetings with the county board and Russ Conrow. They kept telling me that although they wouldn’t be receiving funding until the third quarter of this year, it was still going to be purchased by them.

As little as a month ago we talked about getting together to sign a purchase agreement. Commissioner Paul Bergman continually reassured me when I would question him about how things were progressing.

A couple of weeks ago, in a casual conversation with someone, they told me that they heard that the committee was trying to buy the old First Solutions building. I immediately called my realtor. She contacted Russ Conrow and he said he didn’t know about the First Solutions building but would be attending a meeting that afternoon and would get back to her. He never did.

When the News-Chronicle came out confirming this, I couldn’t believe it. Nobody had the decency to call me or, better yet, tell me to my face.

Although I had nothing in writing, I assumed that when Bergman told me I had nothing to worry about that it was as good as a signed piece of paper. I guess I was wrong. To all of you on the fiber committee: The least one of you could of done was to have been honest with me.

Tags: two harbors, lake county, opinion, fiberoptic