MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Following nine months of surveys, site visits and public meetings, Ice Miller Whiteboard, Lit Communities and DLZ have delivered the strategic plan to extend broadband to all areas of Monongalia County. The plan, developed at a cost of about $250,000, includes several different options to accomplish long and short term goals.
Commissioner Sean Sikora said the plan includes actionable plans with engineering requirements that can be built and connected across the county. Now, executing the plan successfully will depend on public input and navigating potential delays caused labor or supply chain issues.
“Now, we need to make a lot of tough decisions as far as how we approach this and what is our game plan,” Sikora said. ” So, the real work begins now on behalf of our broadband initiative team.”
The Monongalia County Broadband Committee includes Commissioner Sean Sikora, MECCA-911, the Morgantown Area Partnership, the Monongalia County Board of Education, the Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization, and the Monongalia County IT and Planning Departments.
The plan recommends building fiber optic “middle mile” networks, or trunk lines that private contractors would connect to provide service to consumers. The “middle mile” would also serve essential locations and institutions.
The plan offers two options- building the “middle mile” on easements or or streets- both require about 250 miles of fiber.
“Maybe some of the we’ll be doing at the same time,” Sikora said. “But, I hopefully a 5 to 10 year period that every area of the county could be connected.”
The 168 page plan addresses potential sequence, construction methods, network equipment recommendations and a complete technical analysis. Commissioners and Ice Miller Whiteboard have spent hours developing the plan, now they want to engage the public before options are determined.
“To not only be available, but take our show to different ends of the county,” Sikora said. ” Have a meeting on the western end, have a meeting on the eastern end to really show people what we’re trying to do.”
The plan recommends multiple rings that secondary providers would access to provide high-speed broadband to consumers. The ring concept would allow the county to target an area at a time to target underserved areas and control costs.
“If we attack two of those rings, maybe one on the eastern end and one on the western end, to have progress and show it works going forward,” Sikora said. ” We think once we show some progress the rest of the project will take off exponentially.”
The project team reported complete cooperation with existing utility providers and a willingness to allow access to their rights-of-ways. According to Sikora, more than 1,800 responses were received from the community during development of the plan.
“We’ve gotten pretty far into some discussions about access to existing rights-of-ways that would save us a lot cost in acquiring,” Sikora said. “So, there are some real achievements we’ve gained without even putting a shovel in the ground.”
Soon, a series of public meetings will be announced to allow residents to review and comment.