Josh Fredrickson of Kittitas County Public Works updated the commissioners on three broadband projects aimed at expanding high‑speed Internet in rural parts of the county.

Fredrickson said a Public Works Board grant (just over $3,000,000) will fund backbone fiber construction expected to begin in the first quarter of 2025 and serve more than 500 parcels currently without high‑speed service. A second, Washington State Broadband Office project (described in the record at about $11,000,000) is in contracting and is expected to serve roughly 700 additional broadband serviceable locations.

The largest potential funding source is the federal BEAD program (NTIA), which requires a 25% match. Fredrickson said the state has identified seven project areas within Kittitas County for BEAD, representing more than 7,000 broadband serviceable locations across those areas. Each BEAD project area requires a separate application, design documents and financial documentation demonstrating the county's and providers' capacity.

"There are probably over a 1000 in each project area, so over over 7,000 broadband serviceable locations," Fredrickson said. He described a problem the county must solve before submitting BEAD applications: the state's inventory includes many non‑serviceable locations ("haystacks," barns or abandoned buildings) that must be documented and removed from the eligible list to improve the county’s application score.

Fredrickson asked the board for direction to compensate Mark Eiler for field verification and to consider a contract amendment with the county’s broadband consultant to cover that work if it is not already included. He said applications are due at the end of January and that consultants and providers are working on designs and financial reports required by BEAD.

Commissioners agreed staff should check existing contracts to see if the work is already covered and indicated support for moving forward; no formal vote was taken at the study session.