Pennyrile Electric CEO Alan Gates updated the Trigg County Fiscal Court on the Fiber Project during Tuesday night’s meeting.
Gates was in Frankfort Tuesday morning where Governor Andy Beshear announced a 368 million dollar investment to more than 42,600 homes and businesses in Kentucky. Gates said Trigg County will receive 2.345 million dollars as a grant that will be matched by the county to fund 4.69 million dollars worth of Fiber expansion in Trigg County.
Gates says obtaining funding for fiber expansion in Trigg County has been and continues to be tough.
He says more grants are needed to complete fiber expansion in the county.
During the meeting, Pennyrile Electric’s Francis Anderson spoke about the areas and number of people who have signed up for the Fiber Project. She stated that there are 1,087 community members signed up to receive the Fiber expansion in Trigg County. Anderson also said that there are phases to getting the Fiber expansion. Phase 1 is signing up for the expansion, Phase 2 is KIA Funding, and Phase 3 is KIA/County Funding Overlap. Phase 2 sign-ups begin in March of 2024.
Funding is still an issue for some places in Trigg County, says Anderson. She told the Fiscal Court that Pennyrile Electric is working on getting new maps of the state that are more accurate, to find what areas have very little to no internet or service, compared to the FCC’s current maps.
Timothy Griffey with HES Energynet says one common question they hear is why there are wiring and connection boxes on utility poles, but it is not available at their home or business.
Trigg County residents and businesses can sign up for the high-speed network at goenergynet.com.
