Two rural electric membership co-ops are taking advantage of local tax breaks to expand high-speed internet in Brown County.
Representatives from SCI-REMC and Jackson County REMC gave updates on their projects at the July 16 county council meeting. Both companies also gave the council letters asking for property tax exemptions for the work they’re doing in Brown County.
In March, Brown County created an infrastructure development zone ordinance to try to convince internet companies to expand here. It offers exemptions on business personal property taxes to a company for the “facilities and technologies it uses to deploy or transmit service.” The companies will continue to pay taxes on the equipment they already had in the county before these internet projects began.
How much these exemptions will amount to wasn’t immediately known, as neither company is finished building yet, and the assessor’s office will need to weigh in first.
Jackson County REMC is extending fiber-optic broadband internet service to every home of every member who wants to receive it, said Mark McKinney, speaking to the council by speakerphone on July 16.
Jackson County REMC is currently building in the Pleasant Grove area south of Freetown and the Cortland area, and after it’s finished with Pleasant Grove it will move to Brown County, he said. He expects the main fiber line to be up around April, and shortly after that they’ll start doing “drops” into homes, he said.
Jackson County REMC customers who want internet service can express interest and check eligibility by going to jacksonconnect.net.
SCI-REMC has about 10 miles of fiber-optic “strand” already in the air in Brown County, said Tim LeNere, vice president of distribution services. The company is laying the “backbone” of its service so that it can “put fiber in front of any member in any county that wants to be served by it,” he said.
He said he hopes the work in Phase 1 — roughly the northwest corner of Brown County and another area west of Nashville — can be finished before the end of the year. Those 1,700 members could possibly have service sometime early next year, he said.
The entire project will take about four years to build, so he couldn’t say exactly when broadband would be available to all 6,000 SCI-REMC power customers in Brown County just yet.
Where SCI-REMC will put its Phase 2 expansion will depend on the amount of interest it gets, where, and how expensive it will be to build the service, he said. SCI-REMC customers can show interest and see the Phase 1 map at sciremc.com/scifiber.
So far, Brown County has shown strong support, he said.
SCI-REMC also appreciated the county’s offer of tax exemptions, which have been important to advancing this project, he said.
The two REMCs also have been working together to see if they can partner with each other to make more reliable systems, LaNere said.
The tax exemptions are open to other broadband companies interested in expanding their service here, said county council President Keith Baker.
“We appreciate you putting us ahead of everyone else,” he told LaNere. “We believe we’re worth it.”
