COLUMBIA, N.C. – David Clegg paints a vivid picture of the lengths to which rural students go just to do their homework.

It’s not unusual, County Manager Clegg says in the accompanying video, to see pickups parked around the Tyrrell County Library at 9 o’clock at night with children sitting in the front seat to capture the library’s WiFi signal and get their homework done.

“Whether we hang hot spots off of bridges, whether we hang it off of church steeples, whether we put ‘em on top of buses, that is a challenge for Tyrrell County,” Clegg says.

“It’s a challenge for every county in Northeastern North Carolina. And we would like for the blanket to be like it is for other places in North Carolina.”