Site icon The Observer

Lee County Commission approves broadband

Lee County Commission logo

BY HANNAH GOLDFINGER
FOR THE OBSERVER

LEE COUNTY — The Lee County Commission continued its prevalent discussion on broadband in the county during its recent meeting and voted to move forward with three areas.
The commission has agreed to use more than $4 million of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Funds for the purpose of increasing or bringing broadband into unreached areas of Lee County.
Kate Jessup and Courtney Lane with Investing in Alabama Counties (IAC), provided an update.
“We pursued a broadband feasibility and priority study with Sain Associates, which IAC has contracted with,” they said on behalf of IAC. “Sain identified four major areas where there is a significant portion of unserved population.”
The county’s first phase of this looks into funding agreements with three broadband contracts for nearly $985,000 and the county voted to approve those.
IAC let the commission know that it still has access to more funds designated for broadband and there are other smaller areas that the county could address.
To use the money, however, the county must be working toward underserved or unserved areas that fit certain criteria.
“It will be very hard for this commission to define to put out [a search], as a round two, like we did the first time,” they said.
Many of the regions in the area do not fit the specific necessary criteria.
“I want to make sure everyone has access that can get access,” said District 1 Commissioner Doug Cannon, echoing sentiments from District 2 Ross Morris.
The commission decided to move forward with looking at smaller areas and this will be called Phase 2. The IAC said it could not provide that final information until the summer, however.
And the money must be spent, or under contract, by the end of 2024, which does not leave the commission a lot of time, the IAC indicated.

OTHER BUSINESS:

Exit mobile version