Libraries to expand wireless internet access
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 years, 8 months AGO
Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience serving small communities in the Pacific Northwest. She began her post-high-school education at Treasure Valley Community College and enerned her journalism degree at Oregon State University. After working for multiple publications, she has settled down at the Columbia Basin Herald and has been a staple of the newsroom for more than a decade. Schweizer’s dedication to her communities and profession has earned her the nickname “The Baroness of Bylines.” She covers a variety of beats including health, business and various municipalities. | July 10, 2020 8:00 PM
ROYAL CITY — The North Central Regional Library will be adding equipment to make Wi-Fi connections available outside every library in its system. A separate project will add 30 Wi-Fi hot spots in the counties served by the library, with up to 100 additional Wi-Fi hot spots throughout the five-county area.
The NCRL received a $20,000 grant from the Public Library Association and Microsoft to extend the range of Wi-Fi signals 400 to 600 feet around each library.
Michelle McNeil, NCRL communications manager, said a library card is not needed to access the NCRL Wi-Fi system. “Anyone can drive or walk up within the range and access the internet,” McNeil said.
The equipment will be installed in the next several weeks, McNeil said.
An unrelated grant, for $12,000, will pay for internet connectivity for 30 Wi-Fi hot spots throughout the NCRL system. McNeil said NCRL officials haven’t yet determined where those will be installed.
The $12,000 was awarded through the federal “Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act” and through the Washington State Library.
The grant also includes 100 additional hot spots, but those do not come with funding to pay for internet connectivity, McNeil said.
A second CARES grant, for $3,000 and also through the state library, will pay for washable keyboard covers, which will be installed in all NCRL branches once they reopen to the public.
Libraries statewide were closed as part of the effort to combat the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. The NCRL facilities will reopen once all counties in the system enter Phase 3 of Gov. Jay Inslee’s phased reopening plan.
The NCRL operates libraries in Okanogan, Douglas, Chelan and Ferry counties, and in Grant County in Moses Lake, Ephrata, Quincy, Royal City, Warden, Mattawa, George, Coulee City, Soap Lake and Grand Coulee.
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