Commissioners approve $27.67M contract for broadband in rural Washington County
A $27.67 million contract with Comcast to extend broadband internet services to multiple locations in rural Washington County will have to be reauthorized next month to clarify how the county and telecommunications company are splitting the costs.
The commissioners unanimously approved the project during their Thursday voting meeting, but an apparent error in the motion left some ambiguity about how the costs will be shared, meaning the county will have to take corrective action.
The motion stated that the county would pay $8.97 million using federal American Rescue Plan Act money, with Comcast supplementing the rest of the $27.67 million cost.
However, the county will apparently fund $18.8 million of the cost of the project with Comcast paying the remaining share. As part of the plan, the commissioners are applying for a $9.3 million grant from the state’s Capital Projects Fund to subsidize the county government’s portion of the expenditures. If that funding is approved, the cost of the project will effectively be split nearly evenly between the county, telecommunications company and grant, with each supplying about one-third of the money.
The commissioners are expected to reauthorize the motion at their August meeting with the correct terminology. The change won’t require the commissioners to hold a special meeting and it isn’t expected to stall the project, which is still contingent upon receiving the CPF grant, along with possible additional funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission.
The project will install nearly 400 miles of fiber-optic wires to about 2,600 underserved or unserved residences and businesses in western and southern Washington County. It is part of a multi-phase project that began in early 2022 that will ultimately connect 7,500 new customers with broadband internet service. More than $60 million in contracts have been awarded during that time, with the county shouldering a little more than half of the cost using portions of its ARPA federal stimulus allotment.