Vyve announces upgrade after grant exclusion
Staff writer
Vyve Broadband last week announced plans for significant upgrades in Peabody that may explain why it filed a grievance over Peabody’s application for a broadband project by TC Wireless.
Northwest operations vice president Travis Kohlrus apologized in an open city meeting for not explaining the company’s plans sooner.
“One of the things we haven’t done well as a company is tell our story very well,” he said.
He cited labor issues, supply shortages, and a new vice president of marketing for the lack of communication.
Upgrades planned to cost more than $2 million dollars in Peabody, Herington, Garnett, and Ottawa include redundant power backups, bandwidth increases, and network managing hardware.
Upload speeds will be strengthened to match download speeds.
“If you’re a big Shutterfly person who does a lot of uploads of pictures or video, and you’re working off cloud, that’s important to have,” Kohlrus said.
Job applications for the project are being distributed locally in Peabody.
“We want to have those people live in Peabody, within the community,” Kohlrus said.
Street grant sought
Peabody’s council met at 6 p.m. Sunday so council members could approve a request, due Friday, for a Kansas Department of Transportation grant.
Areas requiring attention are on Summit St. between Maple and Pine Sts. and on 4th St. between Peabody and Locust Sts. Jyle Wilson said more emphasis was put on 4th St.
Every council member except for Jay Gfeller appeared at the meeting to approve submission of the grant request. If it is approved, work would start on the two areas in July of 2022.