Esto looks to get new internet service for Community Center

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New internet service could be coming to the Esto Community Center at John Clark Park.

The Esto Town Council approved pursuing internet services at the Center from Verizon at a monthly cost of $36.05. 

The initial set-up cost is $1,128.92. The internet capability would be provided for people who rent the Community Center for an event, which could be accessed through a password provided by the Town. 

“If we ever get a 5G cellular service around here and want to adapt for that, it would be $500 to upgrade the equipment and then month to month costs would go to $45,” Town Clerk Ben Tew said to the Town Council during their monthly meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 19. “But it would be a much faster and more robust signal.”

The new Verizon capability will be “enough to provide internet access for what people need” and “gets us by,” Council Vice President Josh Davenport said. The connection and internet speed is expected to be able to hold up even if a lot of people use the service at once. 

“It’ll get really rough, generally, if you run up to 30 connections (simultaneously), if you start having a lot of different devices at once,” Davenport said. “Even during an event, okay, so it slows down some for people. It’s not that big of a deal.”

In other Esto news, an open house will be held March 9 to celebrate the restart of the Town’s community gardens at 1009 Commerce Street, just across the street from the Community Center.

A disc golf course is also expected to be installed eventually at John Clark Park.

“I think we’re really working to improve our park,” Tew said.