July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.

Fiber-optic future?

Jay County Commissioners

Several officials, including Jay County Commissioners, will sit down this week to discuss possible benefits to having a high-speed fiber-optic line in the county for Internet and data transmission.

Mark Clemens of the Indiana Data Center invited the commissioners to a luncheon Wednesday to discuss the best way to bring a fiber-optic data line to Jay County and the ways a high-speed connection could benefit the county.

Clemens said the discussion stems from ideas tossed around during the county's 20/20 Vision meetings.

A fiber-optic line will likely be in the county's future anyway, since Jay County Hospital will need the transmission capability in the future to take advantage of easily-transferable electronic medical records and telemedicine initiatives.

Clemens mentioned during his invitation to the commissioners that a county entity was looking into bringing the line, but did not specify.

Jay County Hospital CEO Joe Johnston said this morning that he can't be sure it was the hospital Clemens was speaking of, but said fiber-optic transmission lines are one thing being looking into by the hospital.

"We have been working with the Indiana Rural Hospital Association for a couple years now to possibly bring fiber-optics to all the rural hospitals in Indiana," he said, but added, "That is not complete at this time nor have we agreed to the project."

Johnston said this morning although the hospital is looking to connect to a fiber line in the future, he's not sure the avenues the hospital has explored would allow it to share that connection with others in the county.

A representative from JCH will be one of those attending the luncheon Wednesday.

One of the biggest difficulties of providing a fiber line to Jay County is that "we don't have a point close to us to bring it," Clemens said.

It is not clear if the proposed line would be available to the public.

In other business Monday, the commissioners:

•Received an update about participation National Association of Counties prescription drug discount card plan. A total of 571 people utilized the card during January, saving a total of $16,876.26.[[In-content Ad]]
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