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A major agreement was signed in Gonzales Friday afternoon designed to bring an end to the digital divide in south Monterey County.

“For too long the residents of our south county have not had access to broadband like they deserve,” said King City Mayor Mike LeBarre.

The mayors of Gonzales, Soledad, Greenfield and King City along with Monterey County Supervisor Chris Lopez all signed off on an agreement that officially creates the South Salinas Valley Broadband Authority, a joint powers agreement that will develop and oversee the expansion of broadband service in south county communities. Lopez was the driving force.

“So when this is up and running what you're going to see is more access no matter where you live we're going to find you you're going to see way higher speeds than you're currently seeing and really what you're going to see is opportunity in the form of competition,” Lopez said.

More competition means more internet providers to choose from and cheaper rates for south county consumers.

“This is good for south county we're rural we don't have many internet companies to choose from so we get stuck with whatever companies are there, sometimes they're not working very well,” said Greenfield Mayor Pro-Tem Angela Untalon, who signed the agreement on behalf of Mayor Lance Walker.

If anything, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the digital divide between many communities, highlighted by a picture of two young girls sitting outside a Salinas Taco Bell, using the restaurant's WiFi to do homework.

“This project will ensure that we don't get any more pictures like that because that was frustrating as heck to see that they had to go to a place with free WiFi that they could do their school work,” LeBarre said.

The South Salinas Valley Broadband authority will now work closely with all cities and counties to design, fund and develop the community broadband network.

Lopez says it’s the first in the state and could become a model for other communities to follow.

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