Legislators Get a Close-Up Look at PUD Fiber
Jefferson County PUD hosted an open house to celebrate the growth of its broadband utility Thursday, November 6th.
The PUD welcomed more than a dozen community members, local leaders, staff and members of the WA State Public Works Board, as well as state senators Drew Hansen (23rd Dist.), and Mike Chapman (24th Dist.), and Representative Steve Tharinger (24th Dist.) at its Broadband Department headquarters in Port Townsend.
The purpose of the event was to show off the PUD’s new department and to kick off construction to two new grant funded areas. The Discovery Bay East fiber project brings 24 miles of fiber to over 80 homes and is funded by a grant from the Public Works Board. Jefferson North will bring 100 miles of fiber past over 1000 rural customers currently lacking access to broadband. The project is funded by the State Broadband Office, with matching funds from the PUD and Jefferson County. The combined projects total $13M.
Visitors toured the PUD building, which houses one of the PUD’s two newly constructed and redundant data centers, and were given introductions to staff and briefings on project progress. A hands-on fiber splicing demonstration was provided by the PUD Lead Network Technician Shelby Dowell; with Senator Drew Hanson taking his turn laser-welding the tiny glass hairs of fiber together.
“Apparently, he did a good job,” said Will O’Donnell, Broadband and Communications Director for the PUD. “It was great to have him on site. His bill to allow PUDs to sell retail internet has made all the difference for our project. Our customers asked us to provide them with broadband, and his bill allowed us to do it. We’re bringing symmetrical 10-Gig internet to all of our rural community.”
To date, the PUD has constructed over 250 miles of fiber to more than 1,200 homes. In total, the PUD has secured more than $65M to build more than 600 miles of fiber by 2028.