At their regular meeting last week, the Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to award a contract drafted between the counties of Amelia and Dinwiddie and Thought Logic Consulting LLC — a consulting firm that will assist both localities with the planning, implementation, and appointment of the regional broadband project.
Back in March, the counties of Dinwiddie and Amelia were awarded a $1.7 million grant from the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission (VTRRC) to fund a joint venture to expand broadband to unserved or underserved areas in both counties.
Dinwiddie County Administrator Kevin Massengill notes that over the past few weeks, the counties have been moving along on the preliminary aspects of the project, including receiving and going over the conditions of the VTRRC's agreement.
The county leaders also both recognized a need for a consulting firm to oversee the process of the phased, three-year project.
"One of the aspects of this project that both [the Amelia County Administrator] Taylor Harvie and myself felt like we really need to focus on is looking specifically at how this project is going to be phased over Amelia and Dinwiddie," said Massengill.
"One of the key ingredients that we felt like we needed to include was a true project manager — someone who doesn't necessarily understand the technology, but more so the phasing of this plan," he added. "Someone who, once the plan is determined, could be very well articulated to both boards, [and] to the public, allowing the public to see how this is moving forward."
Now that the contract has been awarded by the board, the consulting firm should be reporting back to both counties' Board of Supervisors within the next two to three months with the status of the project and the plans for the phasing of it moving forward.
To implement the $3.4 million phased project, Dinwiddie and Amelia counties have partnered with StraightUpNet LLC, a company with extensive experience designing and building state-of-the-art, high-speed, highly reliable networks using a combination of wired and wireless technologies.
In the board meeting, Massengill noted that the company is currently working out of Amelia and already "lit up" the little town of Jetersville.
"They have about 100 customers today, all of which have stayed with the company even through renewal periods." They have about a 500 to 600 wait list in Amelia, so we know the company's good at their business."
©2018 The Progress-Index, Petersburg, Va. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
