Tim Walker
AMR Reporter
Brian Tew, of Thompson and Litton Company (T&L), told the Pocahontas County Broadband Council at its June 13 meeting that the West Virginia Department of Highways (DOH) notified them at 2:30 p.m. June 7, that they have temporarily closed down their processing of submitted DOH pole permit applications. He said they had recently submitted a 1,400-page application to DOH to obtain that permit, which is needed before any construction of their broadband project can begin. Tew said that T&L had spent six months working to prepare that application.
Now, according to Tew, they will have to redo their application using the new electronic format that DOH is now requiring, however they can’t even resubmit it in the new format until DOH reopens their application acceptance period on July 1. Because of this delay, Tew said that we are now officially “in a dark period” for the project until the application is resubmitted and eventually approved by DOH.
Mike Holstine said the only silver lining to this is that under the new DOH application system, future approval decisions will be based on standards that are consistent in all DOH districts across the state, which was not previously the case. Holstine added that he still does not understand why DOH is making us wait and resubmit it since the application was already completed.
Tew said they will be ready to resubmit the application in the new electronic format as soon as DOH’s application acceptance portal reopens, however the county commission still needs to submit a performance bond of five percent of the project’s construction cost to DOH.
He also told the council that the “make ready” pole attachment agreements with First Energy are complete, and Citynet is handling those agreements with Frontier, so other than this new delay from DOH, everything is set to move forward with the county broadband project. When complete, the project will deliver Internet service to the east and north of Marlinton.
Regarding the National Telecommunication and Information Administration’s (NTIA’s) Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program, Holstine said that the state will need to provide financial assistance to small local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in order for them to apply to build BEAD-funded broadband projects in distressed counties. He said this assistance is needed because BEAD requires ISPs to provide a 10 percent line-of-credit/ performance bond and to put up a 25 percent local match, making BEAD-funded projects unaffordable to most of these small ISPs. He added that there was a recent press release which indicated that there will be some assistance provided, at least for the 10 percent performance bonds.
In addition, Holstine said Spruce Knob/Seneca Rocks Telephone Company is currently in the design phase for its six approved American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funded broadband projects. These include two projects in northern Pocahontas County.
Ruthana Beezley volunteered to obtain updates about those projects. She also said that both the Town of Marlinton and the Pocahontas County Commission have said that they have set aside some of their ARPA money to help with broadband project local match funding, and she will also check to see if this is still their intent.