By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Levy County Commissioners have voted to send a letter to a state agency endorsing Central Florida Electric’s broadband internet project and encouraging the state to support the Co-op’s efforts with a grant.
Commissioners voted unanimously at their Nov. 6 board meeting to send a letter signed by Commissioner John Meeks to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity in support of a grant to lower costs of the project.
The DEO’s Broadband Opportunity Program taps into $400 million of Coronavirus economic recovery funds to give electric cooperatives a chance to apply for reimbursement grants.
Meeks is a member of the county Planning and Technology Committee that heard a request recently from a CFEC representative to support the broadband project by endorsing the grant application. He is also vice chairman of the county commission.
CFEC has created a fiber optic operations unit called Fiber by Central Florida, LLC. that will design and build a fiber optic internet system for the cooperative throughout Levy, Gilchrist, and Dixie counties. The cooperative is working on agreements that would allow it to extend the fiber optic internet system to Duke Energy customers as well, Meeks said.
The plan is to attach fiber optic cables to existing power poles to transmit internet to and from homes and businesses. The Co-op’s fiber unit is a for-profit entity.
Meeks’ letter to DEO says if federal grant dollars are received, it could possibly lower the cost for the cooperative to establish the internet system, and those savings could be passed on to consumers.
“Simply put, a non-profit electric cooperative – or a wholly owned entity under such – is the most appropriate and logical entity to receive taxpayer-funded grant dollars – tax dollars going back to the individuals that created the funds, to begin with.”
Levy County’s rural areas are known to have gaps, known as dead spots, in internet service. Certain areas are so remote that WIFI signals from towers don’t reach rural homes or the signals are blocked by the county’s beautiful tree canopy.
The Co-op’s plan offers broadband internet service to anyone with a power pole in the vicinity of their home the option of hooking up to its internet service. Fiber optic cable is one of the fastest and most reliable forms of internet.
Meeks’ letter notes that five cooperatives are submitting broadband grants to DEO – Central Florida Electric Cooperative, Escambia River Electric Cooperative, Glades Electric Cooperative, Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative, and Tri-County Electric Cooperative representing 16 rural counties in Florida and serving 217,000 people.
“To achieve their mission, the cooperatives plan to invest $350 million to construct fiber-optic networks that will deliver symmetrical download and upload speeds from 100 Mbps to 2 Gbps,” Meeks said. “Any grant dollars would be useful for lowering the cost of the fiber construction and keeping prices for internet service low for all who want it. Additionally, it is important to note that the fiber networks the cooperatives plan to build will also serve to enhance the cooperatives’ smart grid capabilities resulting in more reliable and storm-resilient electric systems.”
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Board of County Commission Regular Meeting December 6, 2022; Posted December 11, 2022
