The Greenbrier County Commission preliminarily approved an internet service provider for the Quinwood broadband project during the Wednesday, Oct. 27, meeting.
During the Sept. 28 meeting of the Commission, two internet service providers were considered but were not approved, allowing time for both the commission and Region IV Planning and Development Council time to review the proposals.
“This isn’t really a bid, it’s a proposal for the service providers for the Quinwood broadband project that we have been working on,” explained Tincher in September. “The two proposals that we have [are] from Countryman Communications and [GigaBeam Networks out of Bluefield].”
On Wednesday, after considering the rest of their agenda, the commission went into recess, doing interviews with their internet service provider options. Once they returned, a motion was made.
“I would make a motion that we would accept the proposal [from] Gigabeam Networks, and have that information that will be sent to Region IV [Planning and Development] for their review … in order to move forward with the project,” Tincher said.
Commissioner Mike McClung elected to recuse himself from the vote.
“I have service with one of these companies and it actually was used as a guinea pig in the beginning, so they did very good to me,” said McClung. “That shouldn’t influence anything, but to be fair, I’m going to recuse myself.”
The motion was approved in a 2-0 vote, with Commission President Lowell Rose and Tincher voting in favor and McClung recusing himself.
In other business:
– A proclamation designating the Greenbrier Valley Economic Development Corporation as the “lead economic development organization for Greenbrier County” was approved. Tincher this comes with financial support for the organization based on population, saying “we are at 32,977 individuals [for Greenbrier County in the 2020 Census] for the total assessment of $41,021.25, which will be paid to GVEDC, for their operational budget. The same will be done by the other two counties for their per capita, Monroe and Pocahontas counties.”
– New hires were approved, including one for the 4H Extension Office, a tax deputy, a deputy sheriff, and a fourth hire working in the Planning Office, for the Building Inspector and Zoning Officer.
– No new action was taken on the Greenbrier County Courthouse improvement project.
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