Tim Walker
AMR Reporter
At the September 11 Pocahontas County Broadband Meeting, Cory Nipper of Thompson & Litton, (T&L), the consultant and engineering firm for the county’s Appalachian Regional Commission’s (ARC) Broadband Power Grant, announced that the construction bid for the project was awarded to Quanta Telecommunication Solutions, LLC, and they are finalizing the contract. The ARC’s mandatory bid hold continues to delay things until October 5. This contract will be considered for approval by the Pocahontas County Commission at its September 16 meeting.
Brian Tew, also of T&L, said he believes Region 4 is in the final stages of finding additional funding. The county commission is also being asked to send a letter to the state asking for additional funds. The extra money is needed because the project is over budget due to unexpectedly high “Make Ready” fees being charged by Mon Power to upgrade their poles to handle the extra weight of the fiber lines. The commission had set aside ARPA funding for overages but those funds must be expended by December 2026, which might not work for the project.
When completed in the spring or early summer of 2026, the project will provide broadband service to an area east and north of Marlinton, including along US 39 through Huntersville to Minnehaha Springs, up Route 92 and back down Route 28.
Mike Holstine said he expects the ARC, which is still reviewing the contract with Quanta, to send a notice to proceed with the construction in the near future.
There were some concerns expressed at the meeting that people are recently seeing a lot of fiber construction occurring in the county, particularly along US 219 in Marlinton, and along the routes east of Marlinton where the ARC Project will be constructed. It was pointed out that this very rushed work appears to be on behalf of Frontier Communications. Holstine and others worry that people might believe this work is being done by Citynet on behalf of their own projects and on behalf of their involvement in the ARC Project. Members expressed additional concerns that Frontier, after not doing anything for years to build a fiber network in their RDOF assigned areas of the county, may be rushing to get theirs done before there is any competition from Citynet. Holstine said he spoke to some county residents who said these workers were placing poles quickly on residents’ private property, and when they asked them what they were doing, none of the workers spoke English.
Marlinton Mayor Sam Felton said these workers, from contractors working for Frontier, have been drilling holes for new poles in town, and have broken into the sewer system in several places. It was also said that several poles along US 219 have snapped in half due to improper stringing of fiber. Felton added that the Fiber Hut in Marlinton is ready to receive connection with Citynet.
Holstine was encouraged by other members of the council to do an interview with this reporter explaining all of this to the public including that there will be another option for broadband other than just Frontier. That interview is being scheduled.
Tew added, “I would want to work with a company that cares, rather than one that is only jumping in because they see Citynet moving in.”
Regarding the BEAD program, Holstine said West Virginia has submitted its application, while many other states have not yet done so, however under new rules, West Virginia will only receive about half of the $1.2 billion they had expected to receive, which will eliminate about 100,000 state residents from receiving BEAD Broadband. He said there was some good news about BEAD competition from Starlink because that satellite provider will only get about 1% of the households in West Virginia under the BEAD program, and none of those are in Pocahontas County. The other 99% will get the faster fiber service.
Ryan Krofcheck reported to the members that the Broadband Council’s hacked and unusable website is being moved to a new server and should be up and running shortly.
