KINGWOOD — It’s almost time for money, about $1.7 million, set aside in November to improve gigabit speed internet access in Preston County to be spent.
Prodigi, a Preston County internet service provider, was awarded two Line Extension Advancement and Development (LEAD) grants in February. One is for west Preston, the other for north-central Preston.
“Not this past Friday, but the week before, we got the notice, what they call the notice to proceed from the state,” Tim Wotring, Prodigi’s president, said at Tuesday’s county commission meeting. “Which means that all the information we submitted to ‘em was approved. We can now move into the next step where we can begin drawing down our match money here.”
Each grant required matching funds, which the commission voted in November to earmark and provide should Prodigi get either or both LEAD grants. Specifically, the west Preston project required $803,500 and the north-central Preston project $870,500.
The money came from the county’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and is to date the only expenditure from that money.
“Remember, this is cost sharing; match must be used first. So that means we have to expend the money,” County Administrator Kathy Mace said on Tuesday. “[Wotring] will be getting a purchase order, presenting us a purchase order, that will commit those funds. We will release those funds so that he can get started.”
Commissioners unanimously voted to sign an agreement between the Preston County Economic Development Authority for use in the two projects. The EDA is facilitating the spending of the funds on the commission’s behalf.
Commissioner Dave Price asked what he should tell people who ask when they’ll be getting the internet.
Wotring said they are going to be able to meet the June 30, 2023, deadline. As soon as there’s a greenlight to start construction, Prodigi will start. There are contractors waiting for the word go and some work will be done by in-house teams.
“Because we’ve been doing a lot of legwork already — engineers have already been doing the designing; we’ve been doing a lot of the hole measuring,” Wotring said. “We’ve got the permits ready to submit to the power company and Frontier. This will allow us to do that, actually submit them. We’ve got them on the engineers’ desk ready to push it forward.”
As a result of the grants, four full-time personnel were hired, which has allowed for a lot of the preliminary work, Wotring said.
As for when people will actually get the internet?
“When you see the trucks in the area, you know, we’re getting close and give us a call,” Wotring said.
Updates will also be pushed out on social media and the coverage map at prodigiwv.com will be updated, Wotring said.
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