SIREPA resets county broadband project

LEE COUNTY – A dynamic that’s been rolling up local governmental agencies has struck again. This time to a broadband project that was underway in Lee County by several entities.
At Wednesday’s meeting of the Southeast Iowa Regional and Economic Port Authority, administrator Mike Norris and Danville Telecom CEO Tim Fencl unveiled a revamped broadband project in Lee County due to bids that came in $1.3 million over the $5.4 million projected cost of the project.
Norris said the engineers had included a 15% inflationary factor in the original estimate but costs came in at another 24% over that figure for a 39% increase of engineering projections for the project.
Lee County had allocated $1.95 million to the project when it was first unveiled by SIREPA. The county funds are 30% of the county’s $6.5 million it received as part of America Rescue Plan Act funding.
The original project would have provided service to 125 unserved addresses in Lee County with 57 miles of fiber backbone. It also included a redundant fiber loop between Keokuk and Argyle that would provide uninterrupted Danville Telecom Internet service should a line get cut somewhere in the county.
That $1.9 million from the county triggered a $3.55 million grant from the state through the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Those funds are state economic development funds allocated through a Notice of Funding Application. That project would also have generated close to $1 million in future lease payments to SIREPA, who would have owned the infrastructure for 10 years and leased it back to Danville Telecom.
The project would have run a fiber optic network up through western Lee County and help serve unserved homes in the Shimek Forest area, but also would’ve laid the fiber backbone all the way to Hwy. 16 and then east to 61.
Due to the cost overage, the project has been scaled back in terms of investment and fiber optic cable.
The redundant loop that will serve 15 unserved homes between Keokuk and Argyle will still be constructed. But the fiber optic line that was to go toward the western part of the county will now be directed at 119 underserved homes in the Wever area, at a cost of $4 million, according to documents released Wednesday.
The work on the redundant loop in south Lee County has already begun and funds for that project will come from Danville Telecom, Lee County’s $1.9 million, and the OCIO money at $2.1 million. Of the county’s $1.9 million, $717,000 will be used as a match to spur the $2.1 million OCIO grant. The rest is used for direct spends to lay fiber optic cabling to homes in the Wever area.
Fencl said packages for those customers will be about $76 a month for 100 mbps up and down speed, which is the minimum for all government subsidized projects.
Norris said the “pivot” to the other project was the product of several months of meetings with Fencl and a subcommittee of the SIREPA board.
The full board approved the updated project Wednesday. Norris said he wants to take the change in front of Lee County supervisors at their Monday, Aug. 7 meeting.
“Tim and I met several times along with a subcommittee in April to scale the project back. With everything that’s happening, that’s the best we could do with that.”
“The pivot is to use available ARPA funds to serve underserved addresses around Wever, which is a relatively dense area of Lee County. Then we can achieve economies of scale to drive the price down and do as much as possible.”
Norris said the plans are now in front of the OCIO and Fencl has confidence the state will approve the revamped project.