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Citizens Telephone proposes 'divide-and-conquer' to speed Meadows of Dan builds
Summary
Citizens Telephone Cooperative told the Board it has crews and underground-burial expertise to accelerate some Meadows of Dan builds and could absorb territory if grants are reallocated; the cooperative said it will not duplicate service in Woolwine where AEP infrastructure exists.
Donna Smith, CEO and general manager of Citizens Telephone Cooperative, told the Board that Citizens has an existing transport backbone through parts of Patrick County and four Wythe County crews that could be redeployed when other projects conclude. She said Citizens "completes almost all of its network deployments via underground burial rather than aerial hanging," and that the cooperative has capacity to accept additional build territory if grant reallocation is legally feasible.
Smith said Citizens has already connected homes near the Meadows of Dan border approaching Floyd County and that underground construction avoids long federal Blue Ridge Parkway permitting for certain approaches. The cooperative confirmed it would not pursue duplicative residential builds in Woolwine because AEP's aerial backbone infrastructure is already present there and duplication would be cost-prohibitive. Board members discussed the legal and administrative steps needed to reassign portions of grants; WPPDC and DHCD corrective action timelines were cited as the next procedural milestones for any realignment.
