Two years ago, a county advisory committee recommended that the Cooke County Commissioners Court choose fiber and wireless internet for a build-out of broadband internet service in the county. This same suggestion was made again last month, with the suggestion for the county to solicit a new round of bids. Ultimately, it was decided that the initial round of the build-out will be fiber internet only.
The Cooke County Commissioners Court officially approved requesting bid proposals for county-funded broadband development at its Feb. 26 meeting.
Precinct 1 Commissioner Gary Hollowell, Precinct 4 Commissioner Matt Sicking and County Auditor Shelly Atteberry met with the old Cooke County Broadband Advisory Committee in early January.
The members of the committee are former county judge Jason Brinkley, IT professional Chris Craigie, research and development manager James W. Hume, Cooke County Library Director Jennifer Johnson-Spence, computer scientist John Leidel, and retired AT&T executive Sherman Moore. The committee brought back a three-part proposal. One was to be fiber only, one wireless only, and the third would let a bidder target both.
This would have allowed both Nortex and NextLink, the two companies that provided bids two years ago, to bid on projects that would serve different parts of the county. Hollowell made clear at the time the advisory committee made its latest recommendations early this year that he hoped the county would receive yet other bidders when it released its new request for proposals.
Instead? Nortex was the only one this time.
Its proposal was to build out fiber internet to Callisburg, Woodbine and Oak Ridge, Hollowell said. Its initial bid was for $1.43 million. Hollowell said the county had $1.3 million in federal COVID money under ARPA left to spend on the project. The money had to be encumbered, or dedicated to a specific project, by the end of this year, so the county acted now rather than go out for yet another round of proposals. Nortex agreed to accept a proposal at $1.3 million, the remaining money.
The county can still seek money from the Texas Comptroller’s broadband office after this project is done. However, with that office’s latest definitions on “underserved” internet access, Cooke County would likely be behind many others.
Source: Freepik.com