Council approves five-year abatement to support rural broadband build by SURF/CERF
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Summary
The Whitley County Council unanimously approved Resolution 2026-01 to authorize a five-year property-tax abatement as an incentive for SURF/CERF’s BEAD-era rural broadband project, which proponents said will invest roughly $7.4 million to connect about 2,400 locations in the county; staff will refine the S B 1 and equipment assessment details before final assessed-value filings.
Whitley County approved a five-year property-tax abatement (Resolution 2026-01) on Jan. 6 to incentivize a BEAD-era rural broadband build proposed by SURF/CERF.
Dale Book, representing Whitley County Economic Development, introduced the project and said the county’s earlier broadband work and outreach helped make Whitley attractive to providers. SURF representative Steve told the council SURF intends to invest about $7.4 million in Whitley County, using BEAD grant funds plus private dollars to build fiber infrastructure serving approximately 2,400 locations; he said the abatement would apply only to newly built, grant-funded infrastructure (not existing infrastructure) and would materially improve the project’s financial viability.
County staff and the assessor raised technical questions about whether state-assessed fiber or certain equipment would qualify for local abatements, noting DLGF (state) interpretations and pending changes to personal-property taxation rules that may affect how equipment is assessed (a new countywide filing threshold of $2 million was discussed). Staff said they would refine the S B 1 documentation and provide a clearer equipment breakdown; the council voted unanimously to approve the resolution so the provider can proceed before construction begins.
The resolution does not fix a single dollar figure for the abatement in the text; staff will provide the SB-1/equipment breakdown and updated cost-benefit figures to the council as part of the project file.