PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County Public Utility District officials hope to begin construction on the district’s fiber optic network in the coming months but are still working on funding sources and management policies.
“We don’t have a firm timeline yet,” said Will O’Donnell, broadband and communications director for Jefferson County PUD.
“We’re leaning more toward early next year.”
The PUD has received $25 million, mostly in federal grants, for broadband infrastructure.
O’Donnell said the ultimate goal is to build a fiber optic network between Quilcene and Gardiner with hopes to serve about 1,000 customers.
In Jefferson County, the PUD will offer internet service directly to customers, but the fiber optic network also will be what’s known as an open access network, which allows private internet service providers to use the infrastructure but sell internet to customers.
That’s different from Clallam County, where the PUD provides the fiber optic infrastructure but internet service is provided by private companies.
O’Donnell said larger companies like CenturyLink and Astound typically build and use their own infrastructure.
The PUD’s linemen will be able to install the fiber optic cables, O’Donnell said, which will follow the pre-existing electrical lines, about half of which are underground. According to O’Donnell, the utility is looking to hire up to five people in its broadband division.
The utility has secured funding for four of the five project areas, but it is still seeking funding for its largest planned service area: Southeast Jefferson County, covering Chimacum, Port Ludlow and Coyle.
Grant, loan option
The projected cost of that portion is $19.6 million, O’Donnell told commissioners Tuesday, and the PUD wants to pursue a 50-50 grant/loan option from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect Program, which provides funding for broadband in rural areas.
The PUD already has applied for a $4.9 million grant from the state broadband office, O’Donnell said, and would be seeking an additional $14.8 million from the ReConnect program, half of which would be a grant, half a loan of $7.4 million.
O’Donnell told commissioners there is a lot of competition for broadband funds, and Jefferson County is competing against other regions of the country that are less developed and thus more competitive when it comes to grant amounts.
The ReConnect funding option opened Sept. 3 and closes in November. O’Donnell suggested obtaining the funds for the project while they were available.
Though he ultimately approved the vote to have staff move ahead with the application process, District 3 Commissioner Dan Toepper expressed reservations about borrowing money to pay for the project.
“When we look at the overall outcome, the number of customers we’re looking at, the level of competitiveness; leveraging more money, even at low interest, to me is not a winning scenario,” Toepper said.
Toepper said he was concerned that in a rural area with competition from private providers the PUD might not get — or be able to keep — enough customers to repay the loan over the 20-year repayment schedule. Toepper called the idea of taking an additional loan “reckless.”
Commissioners Kenneth Collins and Jeff Randall reasoned that public feedback has shown support for the PUD to provide retail broadband service, and that an infusion of cash was needed to build the infrastructure to build a customer base.
“I’m not ignoring the fact there are some risks involved as there were when this PUD borrowed $115 million to buy the electric utility,” Collins said.
In 2013, county residents voted to sever a century-old relationship with Puget Sound Energy that resulted in the PUD offering electrical power to its East Jefferson County customers.
Collins noted the vote taken Tuesday was to instruct staff to continue work on the application, not submit it to the USDA, and board members can still vote against the plan in the next few weeks.
At an earlier meeting Sept. 6, commissioners were still finalizing the details of the PUD’s policies over the network, and staff were still working on the language for the network’s acceptable use policy.
In an interview, O’Donnell said the PUD does not have the capacity to monitor which websites customers are visiting, but needs to be able to respond if such activity is brought to their attention.
During the meeting, commissioners changed the draft language of the policy to clarify the PUD will monitor customer activity only in response to a notification of alleged wrongdoing from an outside party such as law enforcement.
The original language of the policy said that Jefferson PUD has “the right to monitor these transmissions and postings from time to time for violations of this Policy and to disclose, block, or remove them if in violation of local, state or federal law.”
But Collins took issue with the phrase, “from time to time.”
“It suggests a certain arbitrariness or randomness, which I don’t think is our intention,” Collins said.
Commissioners then instructed Jefferson PUD attorney Joel Paisner to rework the language to state monitoring would only take place in response to alleged or possible violations of the policy.
“The emphasis is on ‘in response to,’” Collins said.
O’Donnell said the PUD will work with the Northwest Open Access Network, or NoaNet, a nonprofit made up of several Washington public utility districts that will help with network operation and monitoring.
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Reporter Peter Segall can be reached at psegall@soundpublishing.com.
