Searching for language strong enough to adequately make his point, County Judge Eddie Trevino implored Cameron County residents on Friday to complete an internet connectivity survey that he said is critical to the county’s future.
The survey will give the county the data it needs to successfully apply for billions and billions of dollars in federal and state internet connectivity grants to build the broadband infrastructure that is crucial to compete in the modern world, Trevino said.
In coming weeks the county will distribute flyers detailing how to complete the survey, which is accessible on the county website, cameroncountytx.gov.
The website features a YouTube video that explains the survey, a QR code to scan with your phone to take the survey, or tiny url that takes you to the survey.
“Everybody, regardless of their economic background, has a cell phone, One, and Two, the speed test, you conduct at your home and/or your business. That’s critical, so there’s a two-parter here. The speed test has to be done at your house. … It’s critical that we all participate for the future of our county,” Trevino said at a mid-morning news conference.
“Without the data, without people participating and giving us the data needed in the survey, our application may be quote unquote insufficient or inadequate or not accurate, and we need to make sure that that information is as accurate and as complete as possible because it’ll verify what we all know, which is that Cameron County is one of the least connected areas with regards to technological infrastructure and broadband access and internet in the country,” Trevino said
“If we don’t have the people answering the survey and also giving results of speed tests at their homes, we’re not going to be providing the best application that we can. And the rest of the country, they’re all after the same dollars. We need to show and prove that our needs, at the bare minimum, are an accurate detailing of the needs here,” he said.
Trevino used the U.S. Census to illustrate importance of participating.
“We’ve been woefully under-counted for 60, 70, 80 years and we’ve missed out on billions upon billions of dollars because we weren’t properly counted. You just saw that in the 2020 Census — again. So this reminder is if we don’t have an adequate and complete survey by the residents, were going to be potentially losing out on the infrastructure dollars that we need.”
Before taking the mic, Trevino introduced Dr. Beverly Zavaleta and Leslie Bingham of Valley Baptist Medical Center, who both said the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the importance of telemedicine and the inadequacy of the Valley’s broadband infrastructure to conduct medical appointments via the internet.
Three students from the Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District, Carolina Cortan, Charlotte Hughes and Alec Araguz, provided first-hand accounts of what it was like to adapt to online to virtual learning during the pandemic, particularly when broadband was unavailable and internet access was spotty.
“Because of the pandemic it became obvious, painfully obvious, that we were woefully behind in our technological infrastructure, the divide that we knew about. …We’ve lost hundreds of billions of dollars because we don’t have interstate highway access. This is the exact same thing, although I think we’re catching it a little bit earlier,” Trevino said. “We owe it to our kids to provide them the same resources that every other student in this state and in this country has.”
“Our kids have done more with less for decades. Imagine what they could do if they had the same resources as any other child from Dallas or Houston or New York or Chicago or L.A. or Omaha. If you give our kids the same resources that everyone else has, they are as sharp, as intelligent, as motivated, as disciplined as any other child in this country. We’ve seen it time and time and time again,” Trevino said.
“We’re not asking for anything that we’re not entitled to. The way on the world is changing and we now know that if you do not have proper technological and broadband wi-fi access you’re not going to be able to do the things that are needed,” the judge said of the need for the survey and the infrastructure the grants would finance.
