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City of Coffeyville seeks county backing for broadband BEED grant; commissioners sign letter, ask for data before pledge
Summary
City of Coffeyville officials asked the Montgomery County Commission to sign a letter of support and consider a $100,000 pledge toward a BEED broadband expansion grant targeting roughly 500 rural service locations; commissioners signed a support letter but requested more detailed maps, customer counts and overlap information before committing any funds.
Chris Weiner, executive director of electric and fiber services for the City of Coffeyville, and Brent McDaniel, director of fiber, described the city's renewed push to expand fiber to rural parts of Montgomery County and asked the commission for a letter of support and the possibility of a funding pledge similar to a prior $100,000 commitment.
Weiner said the city will do the build in-house using newly hired staff and is applying for BEED grant funding targeted to areas outside Coffeyville city limits; the city requested about $260,000 through the grant application and estimated roughly 500 broadband service locations in the targeted areas.
Commissioners agreed to sign a letter of support at the meeting but explicitly asked Coffeyville to provide geographic maps, the exact areas already built, projected customer counts, and information about other fiber projects that might overlap the proposed build before the commission would consider a financial pledge of $100,000. One commissioner said, "Show me what it's going to do for the county," and asked for the data by Friday to allow fast consideration before grant deadlines.
The commission recorded a motion to sign the support letter and voted to sign copies for each commissioner. Staff directed Coffeyville to provide the requested area maps and numbers to county administration for follow-up.
