State Rep. Francine Del Monte's been gloating lately about providing "free" wireless Internet service for visitors in the city's Third Street entertainment district. She secured a $75,000 grant to fund a Buffalo firm, Thinwires, to set up shop here in the city.

There's just one problem. Her efforts duplicate those of a Niagara Falls company, BNG Wireless, which set up the wireless service on Third Street a year ago. BNG did it without a penny of taxpayer funding and now faces stiff competition from an out-of-town outfit whose startup costs were wholly funded through Del Monte's generosity.

"As far as I'm concerned, she's trying to kill my business," said Gordon Stephens, who runs BNG with Brian Peunic.

Who are theses Buffalonians, and why has Francine decided to gift them? One can only guess, but if campaign contributions had anything to do with it, people wouldn't be surprised.

By July of 2005, Stephens and Peunic had already installed wireless satellite dishes on a number of downtown buildings, including Frank Parlato's One Niagara and the Hennepin apartments, to blanket the area. They pitched their idea for wireless Internet access to a number of Third Street business owners, including Steve Fournier at Cafe Etc.

For a small monthly fee, downtown business owners could offer their patrons free and unlimited wireless Internet access. Then Del Monte came along, eager to show she was "doing something" for Niagara Falls, and subverted the locally owned private business.

"I asked Francine for a copy of the request for proposals," Stephens said. "She said she had a grant of $75,000, and I told her we could do the whole city for $5,000. We never got a copy of the proposal request, and just like that we found ourselves in competition with a company she subsidized."

So now you can get wireless Internet service on Third Street in a couple of different ways. You can get it from a Niagara Falls company that invested its own capital in establishing it a year ago, or you can get it from Del Monte's Buffalo cronies, who -- sucking at the teat of state funding -- were somehow awarded a contract.

Once before, we here at the Reporter have apologized to our readers for endorsing a candidate. That was Vince Anello. Three times we've endorsed Del Monte -- in her successful runs against Rob Daly, Tim Demler and Paula Banks-Dahlke.

We are sorry.

Niagara Falls Reporter

www.niagarafallsreporter.com

June 20 2006