Published: January 27, 2009 01:07 pm            

Telecom Board will move ahead with fiber to home project

Monticello — The Telecommuni-cations Board has voted to move ahead with the

KIA-funded portion of the fiber to the home project. The action was taken

during a meeting held on Wednesday, January 21.

The initial steps for this project will be to complete engineering and

to construct a 30-mile fiber overlay, which will expend most of the $1

million in state grant money the board has received. Board members were

informed several months ago that the KIA funding could be in jeopardy if it

is not committed or spent by June 30.

The board continues to wait for the brunt of funding for the fiber

project, which is a $7.6 million RUS loan. During last week's meeting, board

chairman Greg Latham updated other members on the status of the RUS funds.

He said that some minor updates are being made to the financial forecast,

along with some other changes that should be completed and forwarded to RUS

officials in February.

Latham said that RUS funds would not actually be available until after

the initial KIA funds are spent for the project.

Also during the meeting, the board heard a report from System Manager

Jessie Fulton, who stated that there had been successful negotiations with

Knoxville television station WBIR to reduce the transmission fee. The board

approved the contract with WBIR, as well as the contract with DNLLC for the

Lexington television stations.

The board also learned that the internet customer base increased again

last month. The cable television based decreased slightly.

John Zeppatillo and Larry Wilson with Commscope attended the meeting and

gave a presentation on the Bright Path fiber to the premises solution. They

discussed technical aspects of the solution and other cities that presently

using and installing the solution.

In other action during the meeting, the board welcomed a new member,

Stewart York, who was recently appointed to a four-year term by Mayor

Kenneth Catron.

        

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