Othello-area broadband project going out for bids

OTHELLO — The second and last phase of an Adams County project to expand broadband service should be advertised for bid by late summer. Adams County Commissioner Dan Blankenship said some of the areas originally in the county project have received broadband service in the time since construction started. 

“We’re in the process of having the designers design around those areas,” Blankenship said. 

The project will extend broadband access south and southwest of the Othello city limits, Blankenship said, an area around the Othello Golf Club and some surrounding housing subdivisions. 

“We’re going to go out (for bid) as soon as possible,” he said.  

Todd O’Brien, Adams County public works director, said the project could be ready for bid by late August or early September. 

“If we go out for bid (by early September) I would anticipate that work would begin in late October by early November,” O’Brien wrote in response to an email from the Columbia Basin Herald. “They can work during the winter months. In the recently completed phase, they did a considerable amount of aerial work during that timeframe.” 

O’Brien said weather conditions would affect that, and snowy and foggy days would affect the time frame.  

“If we make those general dates, I believe the project could be completed in the early summer of 2026,” he said.  

The county is working on building out the infrastructure; actually providing internet to individual homes and businesses will be the work of private companies.   

Earlier phases of the project expanded broadband access in Ritzville, connected Lind with an existing fiber optic line and built a fiber backbone throughout Lind, O’Brien said. Adams County received a $10.3 million grant for the project in 2022 from the Washington Department of Commerce. 

Blankenship said the grant was funded through the ARPA program, approved during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the stipulations was that the money be spent by December 2026.  

“We can’t wait around any longer,” Blankenship said. 

The design of the Othello phase was complicated by obstacles that the original planners didn’t take into account, Blankenship said.  

“Third parties talking to third parties,” he said, which led to cost estimates based on mileage as the crow flies, rather than accounting for obstacles like irrigation canals and railroad crossings. 

As a result, the designers underestimated the cost of the second phase, he said, and county officials knew it would cost more than the amount allocated in the grant. Adams County has applied for additional state funds, but did expect to have to spend some county money to finish the project. 

“The bottom line is, when we started this project, we had a number in mind,” Blankenship said.  

County officials have applied for – and may receive – additional state funding, but it will probably be necessary to spend some county funds.  

“We may wind up spending about what we thought we were going to spend,” Blankenship said.