BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
GREEN COVE SPRINGS— County officials revealed the first two areas that will receive broadband coverage under a plan that could eventually bring broadband internet services to all of rural Clay County.
In February the county selected Comcast to provide broadband to underserved areas of the county, such as McRae, Clay Hill and the rural areas around Keystone Heights.
In its February proposal, Comcast said it could offer broadband to the county’s 17,000 underserved residents with a total investment of $14 million. The company added that it was willing to invest $4 million into the new infrastructure, asking the county to pick up the remaining $10 million to fund the project.
Commissioners responded that with only $2 million currently budgeted for broadband expansion, they wanted to provide as much coverage as the current appropriation could provide, then continue to expand coverage as more funding became available.
During the board’s April 12 meeting, Assistant County Manager Troy Nagle told commissioners that Comcast has proposed two initial areas for extending their broadband coverage in the county.
The first, called the south cluster, is east and north of Keystone Heights, surrounding Gator Bone, White Sands and Deer Springs Lakes, in addition to Little Lake Geneva.
The second area, called the northwest cluster, covers the portion of the Maxville area in Clay County, straddling County Road 217, then moving south to County Road 218 to the Long Horn Road and Mallard Road area.
The initial coverage area in the south cluster does not include the portion of CR 214 northeast of Monogahlea Avenue and leaves out homes around Lake Washington, Springs Lake, Smith Lake, Long Lake and Hall Lake.
The northwest cluster also stops short of covering areas east of Long Horn Road and Mallard Road. However, is does dip south of CR 218 to cover homes in the area of Louie Carter Road.
Nagle said the total investment to cover the roughly 3,700 homes is $3.5 million with Comcast putting in $1.5 million.
Commissioner Mike Cella said that with pending federal and state grants earmarked for broadband expansion, Clay County’s implementation gives the county an advantage in securing additional funding.
“This gives us a footprint and an action plan to win the grants,” he said.
“It gives us a proof of concept that we actually have a viable RFP (request for proposals),” said Nagle. “We have a contract.” The contract will be written in such a way that can expand services in both Keystone Heights and Clay Hill-Middleburg. I do think it sets us up very well for any federal or state funding that comes out.”
Nagle added that the state’s budget includes $700 million for broadband expansion.
Commissioner Betsy Condon told her colleagues that state officials are eyeing Clay County’s arrangement with Comcast as a model for the rest of the state.
“They haven’t officially said that, but their behind-the-scenes people have told us that they are watching what Clay County is doing because they like the model of us using county money, state money and federal money together,” Condon said. “They like that we did a project that would serve all the citizens that we identified as underserved or unserved and that it is a model that is expandable and replicable.”
Condon contrasted Clay’s broadband plan with that of Flagler County, which only funds broadband into new neighborhoods.
