Last night, we learned more about the Campustown project.

BPW staff presented a map of the proposed area: South from 9th Street to the north side of 15th Street, from the east end of Pine Avenue, to Fairbanks Avenue.

This encompasses 640 potential customers. There’s also an opportunity with Hope College. Hope owns over 80 cottages in this area which currently have Comcast service today. If they switched, it would be a huge win for the project.

BPW chose to tackle this as a natural extension of the downtown area. They use a cost recovery model to expand into areas that can pay for themselves over time. They could do the entire city this way, but it would take a long time, and some neighborhoods might never make the cut.

The citywide millage is the surest and quickest way to get to every home. It would get lower prices to everyone.

That millage does put Campustown’s timing in question. Campustown is in BPW’s budget year beginning in July. BPW has hinted they’d wait for the August vote before making plans. Either way, construction may take a while, though this budget item lets them order materials and continue planning.