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Mainstream Fiber pitches $7.8M countywide broadband build; asks Jay County for $2.4M match
Summary
Mainstream Fiber told Jay County officials their proposed fiber‑first build would cost about $7.8 million to reach 2,281 passings; the company seeks a $2.4 million county match while pursuing BEAD funds and urged a county letter of support ahead of a likely Nov. 1 BEAD award announcement.
Mainstream Fiber representatives told Jay County officials a countywide, fiber‑first internet build would cost roughly $7.8 million and cover about 2,281 passings (homes or businesses), with Mainstream committing approximately $2.5 million and asking the county to provide $2.4 million as a local match.
"We are a fiber‑first company and 100% focused on serving rural Indiana," Shawn Gardner, Mainstream Fiber's director of community outreach and government affairs, told commissioners. He said the company would begin design and permitting immediately if the county commits funds and noted permitting is often one of the first schedule hurdles. Jeff Marston, Mainstream's chief communications officer, added that some addresses are excluded from federal programs because of earlier Connect America Fund designations and cited recent FCC CostQuest changes that reduced eligible addresses in Jay County from roughly 3,000 to 198 in one dataset.
The Mainstream team urged the board to send a strong letter of support for their BEAD application; the Indiana Broadband Office was expected to announce first‑round BEAD winners on Nov. 1, 2024. Bill Walters, ECI Regional Planning Director, and the county's regional broadband coordinator, Autumn Marshall, said BEAD and other federal/state programs could be layered with local matches but cautioned that some areas (for example, parts of Salamonia) are ineligible for BEAD due to existing CAF awards.
The presentation included a suggested financing cadence: county matching contributions could be paid over multiple years (other counties have used seven‑year payback structures), and Mainstream proposed an initial two‑year build to establish a countywide footprint before extending to edge addresses. Commissioners did not vote on funding at the meeting; they were advised to consider letters of support and to weigh ARP and other local funding sources. The joint session minutes note the BEAD timeline and the county’s obligation deadline for certain ARP options (Dec. 31, 2024) as a planning constraint.
