For just over a month, New Wave Broadband of La Harpe has provided wireless internet services to the Fort Scott area.

“We had a lot of folks who had requested it,” said David Lee, a member of the company that has been run by his family for about 65 years.

First run by his grandfather, Lee’s father now runs the company that expanded from a telephone company with a switchboard in the early 1950s to an internet, cable and cell phone service provider as technology continued to develop. Their business was also one of the first to reach into rural areas of Kansas.

Since receiving an invitation from the city of Fort Scott to come to the area more than six months ago, Lee said they have placed broadband equipment on each of the three water towers in Fort Scott, located near the hospital, middle school and water treatment plant.

Currently, New Wave Broadband can only provide services to those within line of sight of those three water towers. Lee said they plan to increase that reach by constructing a tower near the southwest side of the lake.

“We’re going to be building on what we have now,” Lee said.

So far, Lee said they have received very positive feedback from those in the Fort Scott area they are providing services for.

“The city of Fort Scott has been extremely pleasant to work with and very accommodating,” Lee said, saying the hospital has also worked with them. “Both organizations have really bent over backwards. They’ve been awesome.”