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Gilliam County moves toward BEAD applications; approves pole‑attachment agreement with PacifiCorp
Summary
Consultants reported 438 potentially eligible unserved locations and roughly 92 miles of new fiber to reach them; the court approved a pole‑attachment and joint‑use agreement with PacifiCorp needed for northern county fiber access.
Gilliam County Court heard an update on Jan. 20 about county broadband planning tied to federal BEAD (Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment) funding and voted to approve a pole-attachment and joint-use agreement with utility PacifiCorp.
Nicholas Green, the county’s broadband project lead, told the court the team had rechecked eligible locations after federal data revisions and now identifies about 438 potentially eligible unserved locations in Gilliam County. “As of right now, we're at 438 unserved served locations,” Green said, and the updated list implies roughly 92 miles of new fiber build to reach those addresses, though detailed routing and final cost estimates remain under development.
Green said the county’s design and pre-application work has been funded by a BTAP grant and that about $30,000 of that grant remains to complete prequalification and early application preparation. He described a required two‑step BEAD process: prequalification, then invitation to apply with an extended due‑diligence period that will weed out locations that are actually served.
LS Networks engineer Kyle Browning described the preliminary design work and field data collection. He said about seven to eight miles of pole field data had been collected and that the network design was roughly 80% complete. Browning noted the address list would be refined because some entries (for example, non‑residential structures such as grain silos) will not qualify as serviceable premises.
Several local provider issues were discussed. Green said parts of the county that overlap with other federal awards — including enhanced ACAM and previously awarded deployment areas — were excluded from BEAD eligibility. He said Rally (formerly referred to in the meeting as “Rally”/Raleigh) has an enhanced ACAM award covering much of south county, and that provider could be a partner if the county wants a single application to cover the remaining eligible addresses.
To enable fiber deployment in the county’s north, the court approved a detailed pole-attachment and joint-use agreement with PacifiCorp. County staff said PacifiCorp’s agreement required thorough review by county legal counsel, the project consultant and county insurance; the court moved, seconded and unanimously approved the agreement and authorized the county judge to finalize and sign it.
County staff recommended a bridge contract with LS Networks to preserve momentum between March and the award decision so technical work, ISP negotiations and operating agreements can advance without interruption; the court discussed pursuing that option further and asked staff to return with specifics.
