Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
After evaluating the sole bid from CenturyLink/Lumen Technologies for the expansion of broadband, the ad-hoc committee appointed by the Jefferson County Commission to vet the vendor returned with a recommendation for approval last week.
Speaking on behalf of the committee, Planning Official Shannon Metty told the commission on Thursday, Nov. 5, that the group had spoken with representatives of the company and been satisfied with the responses.
“We’re going to recommend moving forward with the planning phase at least,” Metty said.
Upon which recommendation, the board moved forward quickly to approve the contract with CenturyLink.
Commission Chairman J. T. Surles declared broadband “a big issue for citizens.”
“One of the few things that people are excited about, is getting broadband,” Surles said.
Property Appraiser Angela Gray, also a member of the vetting committee along with County Coordinator Parrish Barwick, mentioned that CenturyLink had expressed openness to exploring other possibilities.
Gray explained that when CenturyLink had acted as a consultant to the county for the purpose of developing the Request for Proposal (RFP) bidding document, certain assumptions had been made.
She said that CenturyLink was now open to the idea of the county exploring other locations and methods for the installation for the installation of the fiber-optic cable.
Did that mean that the initial neighborhoods identified in the RFP might not get Internet or upgraded accessibility?
Gray said the idea was not to subtract from the neighborhoods that had been originally identified, but rather to expand outward from them.
Commissioner Betsy Barfield applauded the idea, offering that such could be a way to include other neighborhoods, an idea that is likely to please City Councilman Troy Avera, if the city were to be among the expanded locations.
Avera earlier expressed frustration with commissioners and called them out for their alleged failure to include the city in the broadband initiative.
“I’m incensed that no one in the county approached the city on this,” Avera said at the time, expressing the view that broadband expansion should be a community endeavor pursued jointly by the city and county.
He characterized the current level of broadband that CenturyLink provided the city as poor and inadequate. It’s Avera’s contention that the city needs state-of-the art Internet connectivity in order to become truly financially viable.
Officials estimate that the planning and designing phase of the project that CenturyLink is about to undertake will take six to eight months, after which the actual construction work can begin. Depending on what decision county officials make following the planning and designing phase will determine if CenturyLink, or another company, would do the installation of the fiber-optic cable.
The funding for the project is coming from the RESTORE Act money, which derives from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the settlement that the federal government reached with the company in compensation for widespread environmental and economic damage that the disaster caused.
Jefferson County has so far received $65,450 in RESTORE Act money for the planning and designing phase of the project, with more money to come later for the actual installation of the system, and the provider also expected to contribute to the system’s overall cost.
Areas of the county that initially designated to receive first-time or upgraded Internet service per the RFP were U.S. 19 North in the vicinity of the former Jefferson Kennel Club; Asheville Highway and Aucilla Shores; Government Farms Road; Aucilla Forest; U.S. 90 West and Main Street; U.S. 90 West in the vicinity of Tallamont Drive; Desearcy Lane, Rhea Street, Tally Hills Drive and Sundance Road; Linton Place; Christmas Acres; Old Lloyd (including the I-10 Interchange and Heritage Hills); South Lloyd and Sanctuary Subdivision; Bishop Cemetery and Waukeenah.