The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) will conduct a community broadband survey in the coming months to determine the needs in Patrick County.

The Patrick County Board of Supervisors on Monday approved a motion to partner with CIT. The company will work with the county, a broadband committee that also was re-authorized on Monday, the Patrick County Economic Development Authority and other groups to conduct the survey.

There is no cost to the county for the service, according to Chuck Kirby, vice president of broadband programs for CIT, a state funded agency.

Once the survey is completed, CIT will make recommendations to the locality, he said.

The county then must determine “how much skin (funding) to put in the game,” make policy changes and identify the goals deemed most important, Kirby said.

The starting point is the survey, Kirby said, adding it is an important part of the assessment process.

CIT recommends the survey should remain open for 45 days, Kirby said. Residents will be notified about the survey through a number of ways, including paper copies of the survey that may be distributed by the school division, Kirby said.

Data collected during the survey will help pinpoint the Internet use and needs of residents and businesses, provide insight into the locality’s current broadband environment and help to define the locality’s needs and goals, he said.

It also will demonstrate the demand for broadband services by providing the information needed to build the case for potential business partners, he said, noting the goal of the process is to attract Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to provide service to Patrick County.

To do that, “we’ve got to make the economics work” and determine “how to make Patrick County more attractive to form those partnerships” with other entities, Kirby said.

CIT also will provide the county a list of potential opportunities for funding, draft a conceptual phase of the plan and work with the county to ensure requirements needed are in place, he said.

“It’s not going to happen overnight,” he cautioned, and added the work of his agency could take up to a year to complete. Depending on the goals identified in the plan, work also may be done in increments and take multiple years to complete.

Supervisors unanimously approved partnering with CIT after hearing concerns raised from several residents about not only Internet issues, but also problems with home telephone service in some parts of the county.

Residents to address the board about issues with the current Internet/telephone provider included Charles Vivier and Steve Terry, of the Blue Ridge District.

In other matters, supervisors:

• Ratified a telephone vote to pay $25,000 for a used ambulance for the career providers. Lock Boyce, board chairman and of the Mayo River District, voted against the measure. “I resent the way we all of a sudden have an ambulance and I resent” the way in which the purchase was approved.

More details about the ambulance purchase and other matters discussed at the meeting Monday will be in a future edition of The Enterprise and online at theenterprise.net.