Pocahontas County ARC Broadband Project Funding Shortfall Solved

At the October 9^th Pocahontas County Broadband Council meeting, Sarah Riley announced that the $500,000 shortfall in the ARC Grant needed to fund the ARC Broadband Project has been found. $200,000 of that had already been committed by the Pocahontas County Commission out of their American Rescue Plan (ARPA) money.  The remaining $300,000 has been provided by the State of West Virginia. The shortfall had been caused by unforeseen “Make Ready” charges by the utility companies to upgrade their poles to handle the fiber.

With the project is now back on track money-wise, Brian Tew of the project’s engineering company, Thompson and Litton (T&L) told the council members that a pre-construction meeting with their recently selected construction company, Quanta, should occur in the next several weeks, with the work beginning soon after that. He said T&L has been driving the routes of the project’s fiber lines to look for any possible additional “make ready” issues, which appears to be unlikely.

With the official construction startup of the ARC Project nearing, there was a discussion about holding a public celebration. Melissa O’Brien of CityNet (who will be the Internet Service Provider for the project) suggested that based on previous CityNet project celebrations, possibly holding it at PCHS with students being involved. John Tuggle of Region 4 will be inviting Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) members and congressional representatives to the celebration, which might be held at the end of October or beginning of November. Ruthana Beezley will contact PCHS about this possibility.

Regarding the federal BEAD program, it was revealed that the state is still awaiting final federal approval that probably won’t occur until December of 2026. Those funds will be directly paid to the Internet Service Providers who applied for the project. The BEAD program will serve customers in the state who will not receive broadband access from any other program or grant.

Ryan Krofcheck said the Broadband Council’s website -pocahantiscountybroadband.com- is finally back up and running. It has site links to availability and funding maps. They will be working to add better explanations and information to these.

Be sure to listen to Allegheny Mountain Radio for our interview with Mike Holstine where he talks about what is happening on the ground in the county regarding broadband.