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County manager: council approved $40M broadband bond; utilities staff to plan for build coordination

Board of Public Utilities, Incorporated County of Los Alamos · November 19, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

County Manager Laurent told the Board of Public Utilities that County Council approved a $40 million broadband bond (about $35M for build contract with Bonfire) to deploy county fiber to homes and businesses over three to four years, with the county selling bonds in February and a $2 million county match to a state middle‑mile grant to coordinate trenching with utility projects.

County Manager Anne Laurent briefed the Board of Public Utilities on Nov. 19 about two council actions with utility implications: an ordinance raising the gross receipts tax (GRT) by 0.625 percentage points beginning July 1, 2025, and County Council’s approval of a $40,000,000 broadband bond for countywide fiber deployment.

Laurent said approximately $35,000,000 of the bond will fund the contracted build under a design-build-operate arrangement (the county’s contractor is called Bonfire in the presentation). The project aims to build a public broadband asset — county fiber to every home and business — over a three- to four-year timeframe; bond sales were described as planned in February. Laurent said the county also approved a $2,000,000 match to state grant money to support a middle‑mile route tied to a San Ildefonso project; utility crews will coordinate to avoid trench conflicts and take advantage of the waterline project’s trench where possible.

Laurent framed the broadband project as the county’s largest capital undertaking in recent memory and advised staff and board members to expect phased implementation, public engagement on individual projects, and ongoing capital planning to manage debt service and maintenance obligations.

What’s next: staff will coordinate build sequencing with utility projects, prepare bond issuance materials ahead of February, and keep the board informed as design and procurement proceed.

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