Communities in the East Central, North East, South Central and Southeast parts of Lee County will receive high-speed broadband coverage in the second phase of the expansion projects.
In Monday’s meeting, the Lee County Commission voted to move forward with the next phase of the Lee County Broadband Expansion Grant program. Up to $3.4 million of the American Rescue Plan Act funds that was awarded to Lee County will go toward the program.
In 2023, the commission approved the motion to allocate a total of $4.3 million to broadband expansion. Over $984,400 of those funds were used for projects in Salem, South Central and Loachapoka.
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County Administrator Holly Leverette said that those projects helped the county discover other areas that needed to be served.
“Through that process, and through citizen communications coming to us, it appears that there are additional areas of Lee County that are unserved and underserved,” Leverette said. “We’ve still identified these areas that are on your map of the different project areas that there is a need. However, there are no conclusive maps across the state of where projects are ongoing.”
Pictured above is a map of broadband access across Lee County, including areas covered in the phase one projects and other proposed areas. No specific projects or streets have been identified at this time. These are only areas the Lee County Commission has asked Internet service providers to examine.
District 5 Commission Richard LaGrand Sr. voted against the item on Monday, which passed with a 4-1 vote.
The applications for the phase two grant program are now open on the Lee County website, with the proposed project areas of East Central, North East, South Central and Southeast areas of Lee County. According to the notice of funding attached to each project, each project “will require construction of broadband infrastructure to provide reliable service at speeds of at least 100 Mbps download speed and 20 Mbps upload speed.”
Leverette said that Lee County will work with the ISPs that are awarded the grants to identify areas in need along with the priority areas for the county. Leverette said the IAC has created a new application for this phase which will provide copies of maps with the county’s priority areas, but it won’t simply list the projects that the county wants to be done.
“So they’ll use their creativity and submit to us areas beyond what we’re recommending that they look at. And then we will work with Sain Associates to decide whether or not those are truly fit treasury guidelines of being unserved or underserved,” Leverette said. “My hope is by the last meeting in June, we can be ready to award the rest of our phase two projects.”
The applications have to be submitted by May 10. No specific projects or streets have been identified by the county at this point.
Leverette added that there are some areas that the county cannot address because they are from the RDOF program, a federal grant program that effects rural areas that were deemed unserved or underserved by the federal government. She said that the federal government gave the ISPs the money for the RDOF projects, meaning the county cannot use ARPA funds in those areas.
Leverette said that with phase two, the county could not spend the full $3.4 million and that gives them time to move on to a plan b or finding a way to contract the money before the end of the year. The county has until the end of 2024 to contract out its ARPA funds.
Other commission business
To start Monday’s meeting, Environmental Services Director John McDonald announced that Lee County will be participating in the Alabama PALS ” Don’t Drop it on Alabama” 2024 spring clean up event. The event will last the entire month of April and is focused on cleaning up litter along the roadways.
The event is a statewide initiative. Anyone that is wishing to participate in the program or is looking for more information can contact the Lee County Environmental Services Department at 334-737-7013.
The commission approved two resolutions officially designating ARPA revenue replacement funds to projects. The first was a total designation of $1 million from the ARPA revenue replacement funds to the Refuse Disposal Fund 140. According to the memorandum, the $1 million is needed to help offset additional expenses incurred due to the significant increases of volume at collection sites during the pandemic.
The second resolution officially designated $250,000 of revenue replacement funds for design and construction of the Loachpoka Park.
The commission voted to approve an update to the FEMA Flood Damage Prevention resolution to more effectively address the need for compliant floodplain development. Eric Parten is the chief building official and he said the resolution should not affect his department that much because they are already doing what is required by the resolution.
The commission approved a designation of up to $43,287 in the ARPA local tribal consistency funds(LTCF) to cover the cost of updating the second floor courtroom cameras in the Lee County Justice Center. The approval includes a contract with DPS Group for the work on the second floor project. The county has $100,000 in total LTCF money and proposals for the first-floor project will be brought to the commission for approval as construction progresses.
The commission approved awarding a bid for emergency equipment for 14 or more Chevrolet Tahoes for the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. The bid was awarded to Mobile Communications America in the amount of $148,127.
The commission unanimously tabled three issues until the next meeting, with the first being an update on the planning director position. According to the memorandum in the commission’s agenda packet, Joel Hubbard, the previous planning director, retired on Dec. 31. County Engineer Justin Hardee asked that the commission table the item to the next meeting, and it was tabled unanimously.
The commission also tabled updates to field rental fees for Lee County. Lee County Parks and Rec has set rental fees for recreational leagues looking to use its fields but recently the department was contacted by a 501c3 non-profit organization asking about discount rates.
The commission voted to table the issue so they can get more information on the particular request. Hardee said that the commission passed a fee schedule in Nov. 2020 and there was no consideration given for discounted rates to non-profits at that time.
The commission tabled a proposal from Leverette to update the ProWatch access control technology to county buildings. According to the memorandum, the current electronic boards, cards and software are now obsolete and parts are not available in the event of failure. This could pose a security risk to the buildings and the current technology is not compatible with updated technology.
Leverette explained during the meeting that the department found out about the issues during the building of the new Highway Department building and that the commission had two options: option one was to implement the changes gradually, as they fail and option two is updating all of the current systems right now, in a process that would take around 12 days in total. The new technology would also be installed at the highway department building. Option one would have the outdated technology installed at the highway department building.
According to Leverette, option one would cost $162,455 and option two would cost $321,178. Leverette said they found out after the 2024 budget was passed and they just recently got a quote.
The commission also voted to have a work session on April 8 at 4 p.m., an hour before its next meeting, to discuss the tabled issues. The next Lee County Commission meeting is set for April 8 at 5 p.m. in the Lee County Courthouse.
Tyler Fields is your internet guru, delving into the latest trends, developments, and issues shaping the online world. With a focus on internet culture, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies, Tyler keeps readers informed about the dynamic landscape of the internet and its impact on our digital lives.
