Something was very wrong in De Soto, and Kevin Honomichl knew it. Then came the incident that drove the point home.
His son was collaborating with classmates on a team project, but the kids couldn’t meet just anywhere in De Soto. So Honomichl hauled the boy to McDonald’s, one place in town where everyone could tap into the internet at once.
Honomichl lives south of Kansas 10, an area of De Soto that has lacked land-based internet service of any kind. Businesses simply haven’t found it profitable to serve that part of town.
Internet options are better in other parts of town, officials said, but haven’t reached the level that families and businesses demand.
“Broadband has achieved a point of being critical infrastructure, just like water, just like sewer, just like electricity,” said Honomichl, whose passion for the issue prompted him to run successfully for the City Council.
“We’re reaching a point where communities with robust broadband access — to essentially everybody — are communities that are going to thrive economically.”
De Soto isn’t the only outlying community in Johnson County to face this difficulty. Spring Hill and Gardner, too, are tackling the issue.
(Read more: KC Star Local News)