Jesse Lane, the VP of strategic development for Bug Tussel, spoke at the April 28, 2026, county board meeting. According to Jesse, there are six tower sites they are considering for "if and when we do proceed with the builds." He stated those builds would provide a great solution for 911 services.
Larry Palecek said, "When we signed on with Bug Tussel, first of all, we're in dire straits with our emergency radio system, and we were led to believe that within a year there would be some action on it, and that's been two years ago, and now we're really in a bad spot, because we don't know if we should continue with Bug Tussel or if we should go into long-term borrowing and update our system for ourselves. I just want to impress on you the urgency of getting something going."
Jesse replied, "That urgency is not lost upon us." He said they are working toward it as quickly as they can, and he apologized for how long it is taking, a miscommunication on their parts on the timeline, and not getting it together sooner. He did not have a good faith time estimate for when the project may happen, though. He was able to provide some insight on funding. "If negotiations go the way that we anticipate and, yes, hope that they do, we would not need additional funding. There would be actually plenty of funding left on the side that we hope to continue to try to find ways to build out and benefit in Price County including support of other carriers in their efforts."
Nick Trimner said he and about 16 or 17 other counties were going to meet with Bug Tussel and right now Bug Tussel has been responsive. He explained, "We have 15 million dollars that is sitting in a bank." He explained that neither Bug Tussel nor the county has access to those funds unless there is a draw request. He gave the example of metal being purchased for a tower and then the draw request would be made to release the funding. There have been three total draws to date. $7,000 for engineering costs is the most recent draw request.
When asked about fiber placement and if the scope of the project has changed over the years, Jesse said, "The project scope has changed some. The original project scope did have fiber running east to west across the southern part of the county. We are reevaluating all of those. I will say as these six tower sites go up, we always put our fixed wireless equipment on the towers so that would bring fixed services to certain members of the community through cellular Internet services." He said fiber is being reevaluated to see what the best financial is for the current situation.
Nick said, "When we first got into the project, Mitch Olson, a representative from Bug Tussel, was there, and it was projected at about 18 months' time to complete the project." Nick said he did not feel like Price County was a priority in the line of projects, and Price County was somewhat ignored by Bug Tussel for a while. Nick said that it needs to be "now or never" with this project. He shared the "end of life" is coming to the system, but "end of life" does not mean "end of service." Nick explained it just means it is a more difficult product to maintain long-term, and the radio system needs to be upgraded by 2028.
Paula Houdek said it has become a contentious issue in the county. She admitted that Jesse has come into the project at a tense time, but said to him, "If you cannot promise us, if you cannot be honest and transparent with everyone, us and the county, then I would say why don't you just get the heck out and move on and let us do what we need to do? So, that's kind of my thought, is, if you don't have these answers, then, then quit dragging us along. That's what I'm saying."
Jesse explained there has been a lot of reorganization with a different team of representatives at Bug Tussel, which he hopes will be positive. He said that Steve Schneider is a former CEO who is now acting CEO and Mitch Olson is no longer with the company.