MACON, Ga. — Visitors to Poplar Street could soon have access to free public Wi-Fi if a cooperation between Macon-Bibb County government and Middle Georgia State University makes it through commission.
Middle Georgia State University received a $39,848 Downtown Challenge Grant to put wireless access on Poplar Street from Rosa Parks Square to Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
"Obviously, this is something that's very attractive because Wi-Fi does help bring people in," said Kevin Floyd, associate dean of MGSU's school of information technology.
The Wi-Fi would be available to people who live in the apartments on Poplar as well as to businesses along the corridor.
The university said that Wi-Fi could be an excellent way to bring more pedestrian traffic to the Poplar Street area. Wayne Woodard, owner of Ambitious Graphics on Poplar Street, agreed wholeheartedly.
"It'll just bring more people to come on Poplar Street and see what we have to offer," Woodard said. "I know we have a couple of businesses that are popping up down here, so it'll be really good."
MGSU's staff and IT student workers would be in charge of installing and operating the Wi-Fi. The grant supplies enough funds for the Wi-Fi to be in effect for 18 months. The resolution from Macon-Bibb County government states that it would cost $24,000 a year afterwards to maintain the Wi-Fi. It would be up to MGSU to find additional funding.
"Beyond that, we're going to be actively searching for additional funding through private grants to keep this going," Floyd said. "If it's a success, then we would want to obviously continue work with Macon-Bibb to expand this, perhaps to all of downtown Macon."
The resolution to create the memorandum of understanding must be approved by the Macon-Bibb County commission. They plan to send it to a committee in Tuesday night's commission meeting.