By Lyra Bordelon
A brief meeting of the Greenbrier County Commission saw continued progress on broadband expansion, a letter of support for the Blue Sulphur Pavillion, and updated county policy on Tuesday, Feb. 9.
The commission’s efforts to bring expanded broadband access to the Meadow River Valley continued with a signed agreement with Thompson and Litton.
“Thompson and Litton are the engineer, architect, and surveyor that will prime the locations, preparing all the spots for routes for where the right-of-ways,” explained Commissioner Tammy Shiflett-Tincher. “Fiber will be hung on utility poles, utilizing [existing] First Energy poles.”
Tincher outlined the reach of the proposed expansion.
“This is going to be 16 miles of aerial fiber along the route from exit 156 of Interstate I-64 to the Quinwood AML broadband tower,” she explained. “The proposed route will follow Route 60 and Route 20 through the communities of Crawley, Rupert, Hines, Charmco, Orient Hill, Leslie, and Quinwood. This project is in conjunction with the CDBG grant that has been put together and applied for Greenbrier County by Region 4.
In addition, the commission approved:
A letter supporting a grant application for work on the Blue Sulphur Springs Pavillion. Commission President Lowell Rose explained this was “in support of a grant request for the Greenbrier Historic Society Friends of the Blue committee for funding to raise the columns to their original height, install a new roof to mimic the original, and install a new floor for the Blue Sulphur Springs Pavilion.”
Minor updates to the Local Government Purchasing Card Policies and Procedures with Rose noting “the county uses the card purchasing system, same as the state agencies do, and these are just some definitions and little corrections they’ve put into the state policy. It’s just bringing us in line with what they’ve done.”
A new hire in the building and zoning office was approved.
