By Taylor Boyd
In an April 19 letter to the Patrick County Board of Supervisors, the Rotary Club of Stuart called on members to hold a public meeting to discuss broadband projects and fundraising opportunities.
Paula Drady, secretary of the club, said the organization felt a little frustrated since it has been almost a year since their fundraiser to raise funds for the engineering plan and they haven’t had any updates. “So, we really wanted to kind of push them a little bit to be more open. It was supposed to be a little nudge to get some information out to the public and to make sure that they understand that we’re all out here wanting broadband,” she said.
She said the letter was addressed to the board because members must approve the county’s actions with respect to broadband.
“They are the governing body of Patrick County, and they are the ones that have to make the decisions with whom and how to do. Without them signing off, we can’t go anywhere,” she said.
Drady said the organization wants the board to have an open presentation of the broadband engineering plan, and to know what the plan is to move towards good internet capability. The group also wants the board to consider a detailed presentation by RiverStreet Network regarding the plan and how the county plans to go forward.
Drady said it’s her understanding that the county either wasn’t involved in receiving funds from the first round from October, or the first round didn’t occur.
“We have no information. So, I don’t know what happened to what was supposed to be the first round of billions of dollars, however much it was that was going to rural counties to get broadband. It was supposed to have happened in October, and the public has not been given any information since then,” she said.
“We really heard no results. No official information from the board and we were concerned that we are not hearing what we need to hear,” Drady said, adding that while she understands that some of the meeting details and negotiations must be private, “in a year, we should have some information that we don’t have. We should have updates that we don’t have.”
Drady said the organization supports the board and is willing to help, if possible.
“But we want to know what’s going on. All the people in Patrick County want to know what’s going on, and we want to know where we’re going,” she said.
Steve Terry, chairman of the Broadband Committee, said he appreciates that the board is working so hard to do everything they can, but the committee has recommended and requested the board to hold a presentation by Riverstreet Networks on the broadband plan.
“We feel like this is extremely important. It informs our citizens, who pretty much paid for this plan. They want broadband and are wondering what we’re doing. But what we’re doing, it’s all funded by taxpayer money, it comes from state grants and federal grants and that’s a whole lot of taxes,” he said.
Terry said the presentation should be a separate meeting to allow those in attendance to solely focus on the plan. He also suggested the meeting should take place in a building with better internet capabilities than the board room in the Patrick County Veterans Memorial Building to ensure that everyone who wants to watch via Facebook Live is able to do so.
He said the board also should communicate more with the citizens and with the committee.
“Rotary worked extremely hard raising these funds. A lot of people donated money because they want broadband, a lot of our citizens did. They paid essentially most of the cost of that $50,000 project. So, why shouldn’t they hear about what the reports said? Why shouldn’t it be done in such a way that as many people that want to and can be able to get online and actually see the materials, see what’s being presented and ask questions,” Terry asked.
Last year, the state made $30 million available from COVID-19 funds to address connectivity issues and bolster broadband capabilities.
“That had a pretty short timeframe on it. The requirements, when it came out, were stipulated that the projects that were applied for and approved had to be completed by the end of the year,” which was later extended, Terry said.
“Our county did not talk to the broadband committee really about that. They did not come forth to the committee and say, ‘hey, there’s this fund out there that we might apply for and do you have any suggestions,’” he said, adding the county was not able to take advantage of the funds because it did not have any qualifying projects at the time.
Looking forward, Terry said the board is going to have to continue to support broadband.
“I think they do support it, but you can get so tied up in working on other things that your priorities go away from broadband. We’ve just got to work together. People are working and putting a lot of time into this, and when a suggestion is made and a request is made, to feel like it’s not being considered or being responded to …. We’re not trying to be critical, but it’s full recognition that we all have to work on this for a longtime to be successful, and we can’t let up. The money is out there. There’s money coming from a lot of sources and we’ve got to go after it,” he said.
Crystal Harris, board chairman, said she does not think the board can do any more for broadband.
“We are doing our due diligence to keep it on track, and we are watching as closely as we can and doing everything that we can,” she said.
Government moves slow, and it takes time to accomplish the steps, and “we’re further than we were 20 years ago when I first started working on broadband, Harris,” of the Smith River District, said.
“We as the county needs to be working together, not trying to pit the citizens of the county against the board of supervisors because the board of supervisors are doing their due diligence and working hard to keep things going. The county board of supervisors feel that it’s important to move our county forward into the future,” she said.
Clyde DeLoach, of the Blue Ridge District, said he believes the board is doing enough.
“This is a complicated issue, and I understand where people are coming from. It’s frustrating, and I’ve been talking with supervisors in other counties, and they run into the same kinds of problems we do,” he said.
“We’re further along than some of the other counties. It’s a big emphasis right now, and the governor is talking about giving extra money” for broadband expansion, he said.
DeLoach said some of the problems encountered have been unavoidable, including the right-of-way up the mountain along U.S. 58, and issues with the state.
“There are things going on that are not obvious to the citizens. We made the decision to try to be more forthcoming so they do understand some of the problems we’re running into,” he said, and added he would join the broadband committee if he thought it would help.
However, DeLoach said he does not believe he could add anything to the committee, but “I support broadband, I’ll vote for broadband. I’ll vote for whatever helps.”
DeLoach said the board has already spent money and has committed to spending more money to bring broadband to the county. “We want it to be in place as quickly as possible,” he said.
Clayton Kendrick, of the Mayo River District and board liaison to the Broadband Committee, said he believes the board is doing everything it can for broadband.
“A lot of what they’re doing, a lot of people don’t seem to understand is, you know stuff you can’t discuss. It’s in executive session because a lot of the grants and stuff if you tell who’s applying for them and what they’re applying for, then you got their competition coming in and trying too.
“So, we’re doing more than what people actually know or what we can tell. I think we’re doing all that we can do. Riverstreet has that plan up and as soon as we can, we’re going to try to schedule Riverstreet to come and meet with us” to go over the plan with the board and interested citizens, he said.
Kendrick added the board also has recently made some big commitments to the broadband that cannot currently be released. He expects “probably about a month” before the board can release the commitments to the public.
Denise Stirewalt, of the Peters Creek District, said she believes the board is on the right track and needs to “continue what we’re doing, which is focusing on getting Phase I completed and having discussions on funding for the next phase.”
“I know it’s not going as fast as everybody wants it to go, but we have a lot of moving parts here and a lot of moving people,” Jane Fulk, of the Dan River District, said. “We all expect it instantaneous. We have the McDonald’s attitude; I want it my way and I want it now. I’ve been frustrated with that, but I realized that when you get into this, you’ve got to dot all the ‘I’s’ and cross all the ‘T’s.’ You’ve got to make sure you do it exactly right, or it blows up in your face. It’s a slow and tedious procedure.”
Fulk added that she thinks the board needs to continue applying for more grants because “there’s more money out there, and we need it. That’s the best way we can get ahead.”
