If you’re looking for internet access, a visit to E.E. Moore Memorial Park is your ticket.
The first public access site on property owned by the City of Waycross is up and fully operational, Public Works Director James Smart said Monday.
The location is a component of a solar charging station in the park off Dorothy Street. The tower, which was placed in the park as part of a partnership with the Okefenokee Regional Library System, is fitted with wireless jetpack internet service.
The station, adjacent to the oldest of the two gazebos in the park, had been up and operational to charge devices, Smart said. He said he received word from the local library the internet also was working.
“We’re good to go with everything,” Smart said.
The tower has ports to charge up to 10 devices at a time, including one that’s wheelchair assesible. The wi-fi service is available between 150 and 200 feet from the tower, which would allow people in the gazebo as well as the park’s large shelter to have access.
The pack has enough power and bandwidth to accommodate multiple users at any one time.
Okefenokee Regional Library System Director Martha Powers-Jones spoke with the commission last fall to secure placement of the tower on city property. Early last year, the system was chosen by the state as the pilot program for the stations.
The system was awarded a grant by the state of more than $17,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act to place one station in each of its five counties — Ware, Pierce, Appling, Clinch and Bacon — and equip it with internet service. Ware was the last of the group.
The tower’s $3,582 price and the monthly internet access are covered under the grant. The only cost to the city was providing a pad for installation at the location.
Powers-Jones told commissioners a $500 reimbursement for installation of each unit is included in the funding. She said cost of installing the other stations ranged around $600.
If the state deems the area’s program successful, Powers-Jones said the system could apply in the future for similar grants to fund additional towers given Gov. Brian Kemp’s emphasis on providing internet service to rural areas.
Commissioners said subsubsequent grant dollars, coupled with money from the recreational funds of the city’s five districts, could have a tower in a park in each district in the near future.
Getting the tower installed was among the work handled in the closing days of a very busy year for public works, Smart said in a year-end report to commissioners. He detailed the department’s 2022 work in the five areas that can be gauged with figures.
•Highways, streets: 1,5275 feet of canals cleaned, 17 miles of roads graded, 156 hours of litter collection, 10,293 miles of streets swept, 281 hours cleaning curbs, 1,833 feet of ditches cleaned, 17 houses removed, and 10 alleys cleaned;
•Waste management: 6,945 tons of yard trash, 65 special collections;
•Infrastructure: 1,124 potholes repaired, 5,046 storm drains cleaned, 14,629 feet of storm drain pipes cleaned, 83 feet of storm drain pipe installed, 9 streets cut, 696 feet of ditches cleaned, 1,531 feet of sidewalk replaced, 343 feet of curbs replaced;
•Traffic, building maintenance: 777 traffic work orders, 776 maintenance work orders;
•Cemetery: 136 interments.
Commissioners praised Smart and his staff for their efforts. Henry Strickland singled out completion of the traffic and maintenance orders considering only two people are assigned to each area.
“We appreciate all the hard work,” Strickland said. “It is a grind day in and day out. Take those 776 items, that’s about two a day in each (traffic, building) between four total (people). That’s a lot to handle.”
