Smith, Frazier were only officials in region to oppose broadband expansion project
Across an eight-county agreement to bring residents universal broadband coverage, Rappahannock County is the only locality to have Board of Supervisor members vote against the initiative.
Earlier this month, the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors in a split vote approved a broadband expansion plan with All Points Broadband and the Northern Shenandoah Valley Regional Commission ( NSVRC) to bring fiber connectivity at a low cost to an underserved county.
Of more than three dozen Board of Supervisor members across the eight counties in the agreement, Jackson Supervisor Ron Frazier and Piedmont Supervisor Christine Smith were the only two elected officials to vote against the project. Both officials opposed the initiative for months and weren’t expected to go along with it.
Almost every county unanimously approved the project, with the exception of Rockingham County where a supervisor abstained after stepping out of a meeting during discussion before the vote. Counties that unanimously approved the project include Fauquier, Page, Augusta, Clarke, Frederick and Warren.
“It really worries me,” Frazier said of being one of the only dissenters. “It just means that you've got a lot of people that just are wasteful with the public's money.”
Frazier was one of few dissenters last fall when the eight counties voted on officially entering into the regional partnership in a bid to seek state funding for the project. There were two other nay voters in Page and Augusta counties, and Smith abstained, saying she had
unanswered questions. The two nay voters in Page and Augusta counties have since voted in favor of the project.
All Points, NSVRC and the eight participating counties received about $95 million in state funding in December from the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative as a direct result of that vote to build universal fiber infrastructure across the counties at an affordable rate.
The May 2 vote among the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors means that the county is now in a binding agreement with NSVRC and is committed to providing $5.9 million to the project, which has been completely funded by federal stimulus dollars and private donations.
Throughout the process, Frazier and Smith have been concerned over the lack of information coming from All Points and NSVRC to the counties. There is currently no timeline for when construction will begin or how long it will be until residents can expect service. There are also no maps that show what specific locations in the county will be eligible for service.
“I think many people would paint in broad strokes and say, ‘ Internet service is good and necessary, I’m for it.’ When we vote, though, we vote on that agreement,” Smith wrote in a statement. “The agreement doesn’t provide a true scope, deployment plan, measurable milestones, deadline and many consumer or taxpayer protections.”
Hampton Supervisor Keir Whitson, who declined to comment for this report, previously said that he considers voting against this project to be “malpractice.”
During a May 16 Rappahannock County Broadband Authority meeting, Smith reiterated concerns over the potential that residents in Rappahannock County who want All Points service won’t receive it since some parts of her district are not shown on the service-area maps All Points provided.
In order to qualify for the discounted fiber installation of $199, residents must be in an “unserved” area of the county, meaning the area cannot already be served by companies like Comcast (Xfinity). If a resident is currently served by another local provider but is not receiving high-speed internet, then those residents will likely qualify for All Points service.
JACKSON SUPERVISOR RON FRAZIER ON BEING A DISSENTER: “It really worries me. It just means that you’ve got a lot of people that just are wasteful with the public's money.”