Seward County commissioners on April 15 revisited a broadband company endorsement letter on which they disagreed but approved with a 3-2 vote on April 8 to send.
Commission Chair Misty Ahmic said the earlier letter on behalf of Netlink was a template presented by the vendor, not something specifically from the county. She and Commissioner Raegan Hain had voted against the previous version.
There was one error in the template’s reference to the county, she said, so the letter was held.
“We just wrote a letter ourselves instead of the template,” Ahmic said.
This time the board voted 5-0 to approve and send the letter.
During the commissioners’ meeting, it was noted the letter contains “explicit support for the deployment of fiber in Seward County through the NBEAD program” over the use of tower-based connections.
As with the April 8 version, she said the county’s letter could be used to endorse any vendor requesting the commission’s support in applying for grants for broadband expansion here.
The endorsement is one part of an application to provide broadband services via tower or fiber optics in specific areas of the state that will be funded through the $405 million Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) grant the state is allocating.
About 20 providers are on the list of those who can apply for specific service areas and a county endorsement is weighted around 10% in the scoring matrix on which applications are evaluated.
In other action, the commissioners:
• Awarded a $137,807 bridge deck replacement contract to JJK Construction for Branched Oak Road east of 266th Road.
• Voted to renew the county’s employee health insurance plan with a 1% increase after a presentation by Point C, previously known as Mid-American Benefits.
• Approved utility permits for fiber optic conduit south of Old Mill Road around the 3200-range addresses.
• Approved a utility permit for electrical work under Rock Creek Road in Township 12.
• Authorized plans to display green lights in the courthouse windows in May in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month.
• Discussed the current process for vacating roads that are either minimally maintained or no longer maintained and are seldom used.
