BY HANNAH GOLDFINGER
HLESTER@OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM
LEE COUNTY —
The Lee County Commission approved the allocation of ARPA Funds and the Lee County Broadband Expansion Grant Program Application following a postponement from a previous week.
Broadband has been a major source of discussion for use of the county’s Alabama Rescue Plan Act Funds for months. The county has specific uses that the funding must be used for, and broadband falls under that category.
So far, the commission has used funds to join the Investing in Alabama Counties program and water projects within Lee County.
“The county engaged in a broadband feasibility study to identify unserved and underserved areas of the county where expansion of broadband fiber optic infrastructure could be constructed,” said the county’s agenda packet. “After completion and review of the broadband feasibility study, the Lee County Commission should decide if it is ready to proceed with planned broadband expansion projects through a grant program designed to identify and award a grant to qualified provider applicants that can construct broadband fiber optic infrastructure and provide services in the unserved and underserved areas of the county.”
The commission voted to move forward with this and allocate up to nearly $4.4 million of the ARPA funds.
“We did a public interest survey and we had people log in and check their speeds of their internet service, tell us who their internet service was with and through that study, we identified four main areas that were completely unserved, meaning they did not have access to broadband at all,” said County Administrator Holly Leverette during the commission meeting.
These four areas are Loachapoka, south-central Lee County, Salem and Waverly, Leverette said.
Should these four areas be served alone, a bit over 39 miles, it would cost a little over $2.8 million. However, because the county voted to join the grant program, the county hopes to save money — hopefully half of that amount, Leverette said.
“This at least gets us started on trying to help these areas that we know are unserved,” she said.
Leverette said she fully expects that there will be communities that come forward that didn’t participate in the survey but are unserved.
OTHER BUSINESS
• The commission approved a bid for dive team equipment for the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
• The commission approved an application for a lounge retail liquor license for Package Store (D3).
• The commission approved an application for a retail beer and table wine license for 1st Choice Quick Stop (D3).
• The commission approved an application for the 2023 Local Roads Safety Initiative Program.
• The commission approved the addition of a Lee County Fleet Manager Position for the county.
• The commission postponed a vote on the Goat Rock Ridge, Phase 1 Subdivision.
• The commission approved the ADEM Unauthorized Dump Right-of-Way Program.
• The commission renewed the animal control agreement.
• The commission revised job descriptions for the Environmental Service worker and the boom truck operator for the Lee County Environmental Services Department.
• The commission voted to change the mailing address for the commission.