“At the start of 2022, it was all pretty much vaporware,” said Pearson, who is the director of the new municipal broadband utility. “It was all this giant idea. It was still this big idea that the community was behind.”

Over the past year, the idea started taking solid form. Miles of orange conduit were placed underground. Metal boxes that will each contain fiber optic connections for up to 300 customers began sprouting up. And sharp-eyed pedestrians have spotted the tops of concrete vaults in the sidewalks that contain conduit.

Hooking up customers to the system was about the only significant step that did not happen in 2022. Getting the first customers online by the end of the year was a goal, but bad weather prevented it, according to Pearson.

“Mother Nature didn’t allow us to reach out to people’s homes,” he said.

That will change this year, he said.

“We’ll be bringing customers on from here on out,” he said.

Nick Ekel, the customer experience manager for Fort Dodge Fiber, said people are already calling and asking when they can be hooked up.

“That’s a daily occurrence,” he said.

According to Ekel, there are 11,000 premises or unique addresses in Fort Dodge. He said more than 4,100 of those addresses have been registered with Fort Dodge Fiber. Registering is a free early step which essentially means the property owner is interested in the possibility of getting service from Fort Dodge Fiber.

Ekel said those who register will receive an email inviting them to contact Patriot Communications, which is a company working for Fort Dodge Fiber. That company’s job is to visit properties and plan out the best way to extend a fiber line to the home or business.

Representatives of Patriot Communications will not be showing up unannounced at people’s homes, according to Ekel. He said homeowners will have to contact the company to set up a survey.

He said registering with Fort Dodge Fiber now does not obligate a homeowner to get the service later.

Construction of the utility will continue through this year and 2024.

A data center in the basement of the Municipal Building, 819 First Ave. S., that will serve as the nerve center of the utility is pretty close to being completed, according to Pearson.

A former gas station at Second Avenue South and Eighth Street has been remodeled to serve as the base for the technicians who will maintain the system.

A customer experience center has opened in Citizens Central, 617 Central Ave. That’s where people will go to sign up for Fort Dodge Fiber service and pay their bills.

The small staff of Fort Dodge Fiber is also getting involved in community outreach. For example, representatives of the utility recently teamed up with city police officers to give a presentation on using the internet safely to fifth-graders at Duncombe Elementary School.

“We are eager to be at your service,” Pearson said. “We’re here for the community. We’re here for the long haul.”

The process of creating Fort Dodge Fiber began in November 2019 with a referendum in which the voters gave the city government the power to explore setting up such a utility, with 71.6 percent of those voting in support of the idea.

In July 2021, the City Council voted to proceed with creating the utility.

The name Fort Dodge Fiber debuted in January 2022.

Pearson became the utility’s director on May 2, 2022.

Ekel was hired in June 2022. Other key staffers hired so far include Greg Hinz, fiber operations supervisor, and Rachel Rowe, sales and marketing supervisor.