Broadband authority awaits contract to potentially finalize deal

While The Rappahannock County Broadband Authority is still without a contract from All Points Broadband and the Northern Shenandoah Valley Regional Commission (NSVRC), the body on Monday discussed an early draft of an agreement where NSVRC will be designated as the fiscal agent between the county and state funding.

Rappahannock County, along with seven other counties, All Points, and NSVRC, was awarded state funding through the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI) to expand broadband. To finalize the deal, county officials by May must decide whether to enter into a binding contract to bring universal fiber connection to the county. It’s not clear when they will receive the contract, which is expected to outline the project’s finer details.

In the agreement proposed on Monday, NSVRC would oversee all VATI funds, financial expenditures, county funds to the project and submissions of All Points expenditures and invoices to the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development once construction begins. NSVRC would also oversee construction done by All Points.

The authority authorized their attorney, Sharon Pandak, to contact attorneys in other localities and at NSVRC to work out specific details of the agreement.