West Virginia’s Broadband Expansion via the Federal BEAD Program Paused

At the April 10^th Pocahontas County Broadband Council meeting, it was noted that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) which is part of the FCC, has delayed the funding for their Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. According to a statement from Governor Morrisey, it will be at least three more months before the state can submit its application to receive over a billion dollars from BEAD to connect every household in the state to the internet. This delay appears to be caused by the Trump Administration rewriting the requirements for the BEAD program. The state had been prepared to submit their application later this month but are now rewriting their application to prepare for anticipated federal changes.

Mike Holstine said the new administration is reviewing BEAD and the state needs to see and react to any federal changes to the requirements for BEAD. Melissa O’Brien said that CityNet has put a lot of effort into the BEAD application for Pocahontas County and is hopeful that they won’t have to start all over again.

Cory Nipper of the Thompson & Litton Company (T&L,) gave a report on the status of the Appalachian Regional Commission’s (ARC) Power Grant Project. He said they have received comments from the state about their project manual and that they need in order to proceed with the bidding process is for the County Commission to clarify their insurance requirements and the project bond. Nipper said they sent the commissioners a letter asking if they want any changes to the project insurance, but he said the bond requirements have been set forth in the ARC grant. Once the commission responds to the letter, and that is submitted to the state for approval, the bids for construction can be advertised. Following that, a bidding contractor can be selected although there is a 60-to-90-day ARC-mandated delay for bid review before a bid is awarded. After that, construction can begin. It is hoped that the construction can start in early fall.

There was also a question about T&L’s contract as the county’s ARC Power Grant engineering advisors. Brian Tew of T&L explained that their contract runs through the completion of the construction bidding phase and will need to be renewed for them to extend that through the actual construction.

There was discussion about the public groundbreaking ceremony the council has been considering for the ARC Project. Ruthana Beezley suggested that this be called a “dedication” ceremony instead of a “groundbreaking” since we are uncertain when construction will begin. Sarah Riley said we should hold off until we have selected a contractor for the construction, or until an actual construction start date is determined. Region 4’s John Tuggle agreed that we don’t want any public ceremony until at least the bid is awarded. He said there is no reason to do it earlier, especially since we still don’t have official permission from the ARC to spend the grant money on the construction.

Mike Holstine agreed and suggested we look at sometime in August or September for a public dedication ceremony.

The council agreed to revisit the scheduling of the public event date until next month when we may have a better handle on the timing of the construction start.

Regarding the WV Line Extension Advancement and Development (LEAD) program, CityNet’s backbone project field work is complete and they are ready to start construction. Seneca Rocks Spruce Knob’s (SRSK) LEAD project remains in the design and permitting phase.

Finally, it was announced that the Broadband Council’s official website remains unusable since being hacked months ago. Ryan Krofcheck is examining it to determine if it is repairable or will need to be completely rebuilt.