Commission to vote on Ghent broadband funding
Jan. 27—Raleigh County Commission will hold a special meeting Thursday to authorize spending $1 million to bring broadband to the Ghent area, Commission President Dave Tolliver said Wednesday.
Tolliver and commissioners Linda Epling and Greg Duckworth will vote at the meeting on whether the county will pay $1 million toward the project, which will lay around 32 miles of broadband. If commission votes to spend the $1 million, the state will supply an additional $3 million.
"Hey, that don't take a rocket scientist to figure it out," Tolliver said Wednesday, in response to whether Commission is likely to vote in favor of the proposal.
He reported that Commission has already heard from multiple engineer teams and, after interviews, has plans to appoint Thrasher Engineering to design the broadband project. Commissioners will vote to approve the engineer, legal services and the internet service provider.
Under the Raleigh County Broadband Project, the county is seeking to expand reliable internet service, as portions of Raleigh are unserved or underserved, including homes along W.Va. 3 and County Route 1.
Tolliver said that the portion of the project in discussion during the special meeting is for around seven miles of broadband from Ghent to Odd, with additional broadband along parts of U.S. 19.
"We'll get all around the post office and then we'll take the rest up and down 19, as far as we can take it, where $4 million will take us," Tolliver explained. "We're still working on out at Route 3 and Route 1, from Glen Daniel down.
"With this particular grant, the reason we're going to Ghent is that Facebook runs fibers all the way up the Turnpike, and we can connect it to Facebook right at the interchange at Ghent."
In November 2019, Gov. Jim Justice and Facebook officials broke ground on the New River Project, which was carried out by Facebook's Middle Mile infrastructure, a gargantuan internet infrastructure project that stretches from Virginia to Ohio and crosses parts of West Virginia, including the portion at Ghent.
Tolliver said residents in the Glen Daniel area will be served from another grant, which Tolliver said will involve the Raleigh Board of Education providing half a million dollars for construction of broadband from Glen Daniel. The broadband would run up and down Route 2 and along Route 1 and will cost around $5 million.
"We're still working on the deal with that," he explained. "Of course, we'll work on grants to go with the $500,000 that the board of education's going to give us."
Tolliver said construction on the Ghent project could begin this coming summer.
"They have two years to get it completed," he added.
Monday is the deadline for applying for the $3 million, which is why Commission is holding the special meeting on Thursday.
Commission will meet at 10 a.m. in Raleigh Commission Chambers at 116 1/2 N. Heber St.
The public may dial into the meeting at 978-990-5449, using access code 623858 when prompted.
Phones must be muted.
