If there was any doubt that broadband services will be a significant issue in Goochland County for months and years to come, I think it might have been put to bed.

With the high level of response from residents to a survey conducted by CBG Communications recently on the issue, there is no denying that people care about getting Internet access to the county sooner rather than later.

Everyone has their niche. Mine has always been political activity. And that’s the main reason why in high school and college I engrossed myself in figuring out why people do what they do when it comes to political discourse, be it through activism, general participation, or voting.

Here, I must admit, I was impressed by the turnout at the forum on broadband that CBG held in January. But getting back 30 percent of the surveys you sent out? That’s a different animal altogether.

Political scientists will tell you that anything a citizen does requires some kind of investment—think of it as a debit from a huge, civic-minded bank account.

The question that is always at the heart of the battle is how much does someone have to give up in order to take part in something? For example, voting for some is easy. But for those working two jobs that have to look after their three children, it’s a different ledger to reconcile. Voting takes more for some people, especially when it comes to learning about candidates, fighting through the popularity contest and getting to the issues.

So, again, getting a response rate of 30 percent is nearly unheard of. I’m sure it’s happened but I haven’t seen it much.

I think what Goochland residents have said and are now continuing to say to the political powers that be is that they are unhappy with the current situation, especially since it will take a while for implementation to actually occur.

Just as localities have historically struggled with noise, so too do they struggle with where the line rests between what it should do for residents and what residents must do on their own.

There are options out there for those who can’t get access to more traditional or cost-effective broadband services. But they aren’t necessarily always good ones. And the private sector hasn’t been very responsive to Goochland’s calls for more access, to say the least.

What the response to this survey has shown unequivocally is that the people want this or, at the very least, they want county leaders to get moving.

The only bad news here is the reality that the clock won’t start until July, when CBG is set to present its report and recommendations to the board.

The underlying question here might be shaping up something like this: If getting the services requires millions of dollars, what do the supervisors and other county officials do then? How far are they willing to go?

It seems that for a good portion of Goochland County, that question might be an easy answer. So, then that begs the obvious follow-up: So then what about everybody else?