Presley, a Nettleton Democrat, reiterated Monday his belief that rural Mississippi needs high-speed internet. Presley, who is the chair of the three-member Public Service Committee that regulates many state utilities, has a message to candidates for November. Presley, who is running unopposed for re-election this November, said: “Please don’t run for office and tell me you care about rural Mississippi people if you don’t have a plan for doing something for them.” Either tell the truth and say you don’t care that the last people in rural Mississippi turned off the lights or we can do something about it. Let’s keep innovating and push.” Presley led an effort to get state law passed to allow rural electric power cooperatives (customer-owned) to provide high-speed internet. Presley stated, “I would not believe that just six months after the governor signed that bill, we would have four announcements of rural electric power association,” “getting the ball rolling.” Presley stated that the Tallahatchie Valley serves the north Delta; the Tombigbee and Alcorn County electric power associations and Prentiss County, all located in northeast Mississippi have announced their intention to begin running broadband lines. According to him, Prentiss County will begin hiring contractors within the next two weeks in order to install fiber optic cables. Presley stated that many of the same rural electric power organizations in northeast Mississippi, which pioneered the introduction of electricity to rural America in 1930s and 1940s, are now leading the charge in installing high-speed internet or broadband in rural areas. Presley said that the first rural electric association was created in 1930s by people from Alcorn County (where Corinth is). The framework was adopted by other counties in the area, and it became the basis for President Franklin Roosevelt’s national policy. Presley described it as the Corinth experiment. Presley stated that Mississippi ranks 49th in the nation for providing high-speed internet service. This is important for both students and businesses. Presley, as he does often, equates the need to have high-speed internet in rural areas with the need of electricity in the 1930s. Presley stated, “I believe that there are very few times in your life and in the history and history of men where you can stand at the same intersection as your forefathers.” We are there. There is no doubt about it, we are there. Today’s question is: Will we do anything about it? I believe we are working hard towards that. Because they are not profit-driven, he said that rural electric power associations may be able to go into certain areas that commercial providers can’t. Presley stated that he believes the reason why the state has lost three out of four years of its population is because there is not enough high-speed internet access in rural areas. Rural electric power associations must conduct feasibility studies before they offer the service. Private providers can also offer the same services under state law.