GRANGEVILLE \u2014 A regional multimillion dollar fiber optic project starts construction in September, with plans for full completion later in 2026 to provide faster and more reliable broadband internet service.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be until next spring, but we\u2019re going to get it,\u201d said Dave Taylor, consultant on DIGB2 (District Interoperability Governance Board) project to service its five-county region: Idaho, Lewis, Clearwater, Nez Perce and Latah.<\/p>\n
Taylor \u2014 along with Dave Snodgrass with Clearwater Economic Development Administration, and Jerry Zumalt, Idaho County Emergency Management Coordinator \u2014 updated the council on the $14 million project at its Aug. 18 meeting.<\/p>\n
Of this total, $12.3 million is set for construction of a middle-mile fiber optic line from Grangeville to Orofino and \u2014 up to now \u2014 last-mile fiber-to-the-premise in the City of Nezperce. On this last, Taylor had good news for the council:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve added the city of Grangeville for fiber to the home,\u201d he said, which will be incorporated within phase three of the project when Nezperce work will be conducted. Bids on this portion are expected to go out in mid-October.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, construction begins on phase one \u2014 Nezperce to Orofino \u2014 on Sept. 15, followed by phase two: Nezperce to Grangeville.<\/p>\n
The DIGB2 project required a 26% match from public entities within the project area, of which the City of Grangeville contributed $66,793. Taylor recognized that commitment:<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you for that,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big deal for you to give that. We understand the tight budgets for small communities, and so for you to give that to us as part of the match, we\u2019re really appreciative of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The DIGB2 project is for middle-mile, defined as the connection of communities over distances. This will connect into a \u201clast-mile\u201d (service provides connections to individual end users) project: the planned 198-mile IRON (Idaho Regional Optical Network) public\/private broadband partnership from Grangeville to Star.<\/p>\n
For the DIGB2 project, the ISPs (internet service providers) to be involved include Airbridge, Inland Cellular and First Step, who will be providing home services. Taylor noted a campaign will be conducted to find out the level of interest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we do that, then we\u2019ll know exactly how many homes we\u2019re going to be lighting up as soon as the fiber comes online,\u201d he said, with Zumalt later adding, \u201cWe\u2019re going to put fiber on these towers, too. So the reach actually can be much greater,\u201d to outlying residents, and overall to the area\u2019s commerce and economic infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis whole effort for broadband is a real culmination of 15 years of effort across the region. It is the strength of partnerships,\u201d Snodgrass said, with the work of DIGB2 and also CEDA in grant writing for the project. \u201cWe were a black hole in middle mile and fiber for years, and look at where we\u2019re getting. So, it\u2019s really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other council business:<\/p>\n
\u2022 County approved to place an increase in the Avista franchise fee, from 1% to 3%, on the November ballot.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Council set a public hearing for Tuesday, Sept. 2, at 6 p.m. for the proposed $8,099,121 City of Grangeville budget for 2025-26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GRANGEVILLE \u2014 A regional multimillion dollar fiber optic project starts construction in September, with plans for full completion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[47669,1638,8929,50,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-96705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-grangeville","9":"tag-internet","10":"tag-local","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-technology","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}