State grant will help pay for Grant PUD fiber optic project
A contractor works on the Grant County PUD fiber expansion project in the McConihe Road area near Moses Lake earlier this year.
Courtesy photo
Contractors lay fiber near McConihe Road near Moses Lake earlier this year, part of the Grant County PUD fiber expansion program. The PUD received an $810,000 grant and qualified for a $810,000 loan from the Washington Public Works Board.
Grant County PUD contractors install fiber north of Moses Lake. The PUD received an $810,000 grant and qualified for an $810,000 loan to help pay for a protion of the project.
EPHRATA — Grant County Public Utility District will use an $810,000 grant from the Washington State Public Works Board to expand the utility’s fiber optic network. The PUD also qualified for an $810,000 loan from the PWB.
Russ Brethower, senior manager of wholesale fiber, said the decision whether or not to accept the loan will be up to the district’s financial managers.
The grant, and the loan if the PUD accepts it, will be used to pay for the portion of the fiber optic network buildout from Gloyd townsite to the town of Stratford, a 10-mile section from Road 12 Northeast to Road 22 Northeast. Ryan Holterhoff, PUD public information specialist, said the estimated cost of that section is $1.8 million.
Jeremy Conner, fiber project manager, updated PUD commission members on the status of the buildout at the regular commission meeting Tuesday, Oct. 27.
Conner said the Gloyd-Stratford project currently is under construction and should be finished by the end of the year.
The fiber backbone installation has been completed from the Ephrata city limits to Rocky Ford. Five other sections should be finished, or almost finished, by the end of 2020. They include Steamboat Rock to Osborne Bay near Electric City, which should be finished by early November, and Cave B Winery to Beverly Burke Road, the section from Road 2 SW to Road 2 NW. That section should be completed by mid-November, Conner said.
Fiber from the South Ephrata substation to the Naylor townsite, near the junction of state Route 28 and Highway 283, is scheduled for completion by early December, but Conner said it could be finished ahead of schedule. The section from Highway 28 to Road 9 Northwest, near Quincy, is scheduled to be done by mid-December.
Brethower said there’s strong demand for fiber. “Crazy high (demand),” he said. “It’s just amazing what the demand is out there.” About 62 percent of the households with access to fiber are hooked up, he said. The goal for 2020 was to see 60 percent of households hooked up to the utility’s high-speed internet network.
