Recently the Mecklenburg Sun Reported the following, “Mecklenburg, Halifax, Charlotte and Brunswick counties will receive more than $69 million from the State of Virginia to build fiber optic broadband infrastructure serving over 11,500 homes and businesses in the area.” As the late Paul Harvey used to say, “Now for the rest of the story”. That works out to a cost of around $6000 per home to build out. Whereas our cost is around $1500 per home, or less to build the infrastructure and provide a quality installation to the home or business.
What was not reported are the misrepresentations by the Mecklenburg County Administrator and others in applying for this grant. For two years LCI has approached Wayne Carter by email soliciting help in applying for a Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI) grant. Additionally, as reported in the Mecklenburg Sun on August 11, 2021 as per the following link, http://www.thenewsrecord.com/index.php?/news/article/internet_provider_presses_mecklenburg_county_for_grant_support/, LCI and a small cadre of supporters appeared before the Board of Supervisors asking for support to back our AirFiber Fixed Wireless internet solution that we have available today, and can deploy for between 1/10th and ¼ the cost of fiber in about 1/10th the time. The Board of Supervisors heard testimony from all the clients who spoke about how we have brought them reliable and fast internet, and urged the Board of Supervisors to back our projects.
The Varner Family has been serving the citizens of Mecklenburg County by providing internet solutions for 21 years and two generations of family members. Formerly known as Lake Country Satellite, we were one of the first to provide high speed (in the early 2000’s) 3 Mbps over satellite, while others had 54k dial up. LCS – due to the overwhelming grass roots customer support here in this region – grew to become the #10 dealer for Viasat nationwide, and the #1 dealer on the East Coast from 2012-2015.
In late 2017 Microsoft approached us to do a pilot project to build a community WiFi hotspot in the Town of Boydton. David Varner asked Microsoft for permission to build services out to folks outside the communities who really needed it, as a WISP, and then would maintain the local free WiFi hotspot after the initial agreement expired. We did such a great job with the first project, that Microsoft gave us a second, larger project for the Town of Clarksville.
After the Board of Supervisors meeting, instead of listening to the citizens of Mecklenburg County and their support for helping us obtain VATI grant money, just the opposite happened. One would think that after providing internet services for some 21 years in Mecklenburg County, and having the backing of Microsoft to help you build your initial network backbone, that Wayne Carter and the Board of Supervisors, would be happy to help a local company that has been providing a valuable contribution to the County. The ongoing behavior of Wayne Carter and the good ole boy club is just unacceptable but sadly, we’re stuck with them, for now.
Well this $69 million deal hurt my family business we worked so hard to build because of this good ole boy club. This has cost our family over $25,000 in legal fees just for the month of October/November, to defend ourselves against their falsely filed VATI application. The same day we appeared before the Board of Supervisor’s, “coincidentally” a certified letter was drafted by the County Commissioners Office demanding I list all the assets of my company.
Then Wayne Carter drafted a letter of response dated August 11, 2021 (“August Letter”), to the Board of Supervisors which also was full of deception. He stated that VATI is looking for large-scale projects that cover a county and will give those projects additional points. Yet fixed wireless services like ours won VATI awards in this same round in other parts of Virginia, so we know that LCI could easily have been included in the SPDC proposal and granted funding. What Wayne Carter also did not mention was that those additional points come from having multiple forms of coverage and co-applicants such as Lake Country Internet because the VATI Commission is technology neutral. And, we already have the backbone for a countywide deployment, we are just lacking funding to build additional towers in key areas (areas Mr. Carter received before the latest grant round in an email correspondence from us).
Additionally, Carter told the Board of Supervisors in the August Letter that the County does not write grant applications, again only partially true. SPDC writes those grants for the County and other neighboring counties at the County’s request. But Mr. Carter goes on in his August Letter to state that if Lake Country wants to submit a VATI application with Mecklenburg County as the Co-Applicant, Lake Country itself will need to complete the application and send it to him for review. Another false statement. VATI requires that government entities must be the lead Applicant on a VATI application so the counties had to take the lead in any Application. LCI does not have access to any application system. Carter was also aware of this from a prior conference call and emails, yet he again provided false information to the Board of Supervisors.
Additionally, Wayne Carter suddenly decided and stated that Lake Country now has to get zoning approvals for our towers. So again, coincidentally, Mecklenburg County changed the laws so that we now have to get a permit, zoning, and a review for anything over 30 feet, which could take up to a year according to comment made by one Board of Supervisor at the above mentioned meeting. This does nothing to help us deploy internet to those who need it; on the contrary, it is a purposeful roadblock to delay and discourage the growth of Lake Country and the deployment of high-speed internet services to County consumers.
Moving on to the falsely filed VATI application: to start with, it is full of false and misleading information. We were not given any opportunity to participate in this VATI grant. Their application that is publically available online has some interesting documents attached. One in particular is their Phase One Memorandum of Understanding which was signed by Dominion Energy and Empower Broadband on July 6, 2021, 22 days before Southside Planning District Commission sent out their Request for Proposal on July 28, 2021 for Southside Planning Districts Universal Broadband Coverage Project. The RFP was supposedly seeking bidders to provide bids for the VATI grants through what was supposed to be a fair and competitive bidding process. The RPF states:
The SPDC is prepared to engage through partnerships and apply for various grants/loans from state and federal sources to include, but not limited to: The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI) grant program and Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) Other state and federal programs supporting broadband infrastructure.
The Responder should describe how they will develop and implement the infrastructure for expanding, distributing, terminating, managing and/or sustaining internet service(s) for the citizens, businesses, organizations, and government entities of the District in accordance with the appropriate guidelines of each program. The Responder will also include a plan to meet the various grant/loan application deadlines of each program.
Yet because of the preexisting signed Phase One Memorandum of Understanding, again, attached to their public VATI grant application, this RFP was just for show because their choice was made and they already had their players in place before sending out the RFP. Again further evidence of this out of control good ole boy system here in Mecklenburg County and Southside Virginia.
From Question No. 2 on SPDC’s VATI Application they began to completely mislead and deceive the VATI Commission. Question 2 is as follows: “List existing providers in the proposed area and the speeds offered. Please do not include satellite. Describe your outreach efforts to identify existing providers and how this information was compiled with source(s).”
Part of their answer goes on to state that the Counties and their residents were substantially engaged in the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) broadband surveys. Yet how many folks here in Mecklenburg County responded to this survey? I know I never saw it. And for such a survey you would think they would post this online, yet nothing can be found to support their claims of Mecklenburg County residents being substantially engaged in the survey. And after multiple requests to CIT by phone and email, as of this release, we were unsuccessful in obtaining any information as to any results from this survey.
Now the purpose of Question No. 2 is to ensure that subsidies funded by your tax dollars don’t get wasted overbuilding areas that already have existing high-quality, high-speed broadband. But when SPDC actually lists their incumbent providers and their preexisting broadband services, not once was Lake County Internet mentioned. Really, even after we appeared before the Board of Supervisors with a cadre of supporters and published on the front page of the Mecklenburg Sun on August 11, 2021? Wayne Carter, SPDC, and the Board of Supervisors were fully aware that Lake Country was a qualifying existing broadband competitor, yet they all approved the Application. Shameful, rubber stamping, go with the flow, good ole boy club supervisors.
So all these deceptions were just from their second question on their application. The grant Application goes on later to mention Lake Country Satellite, which was our former name before we build our AirFiber Fixed Wireless network, pulling old satellite speeds, perhaps directly off of Lake Country’s website, and without ever once mentioning Lake Country’s high-speed, high-quality broadband services offered today. Coincidentally, you have to look hard to find information about those satellite plans as we are all about our AirFiber now. And of course and they picked the most expensive satellite plan on top of that to include in the Application, further misleading VATI as to the broadband services already established in the area where SPDC was seeking high-dollar government subsidies.
When SPDC included broadband maps off the FCC’s website, they conveniently left fixed wireless unchecked on the FCC’s website so as to generate a map that did not show any fixed wireless in Mecklenburg County. However, if you went to those same links and clicked to show wireless, Lake Country Internet’s widespread coverage in Mecklenburg County would immediately show up. That was just one way in which SPDC erased the reality of Lake Country’s existing coverage from its VATI Application.
On previous requests to be included in the VATI grant, maps of our network and coverage areas, along with areas we were seeking grant money to build additional towers were emailed to Wayne Carter. So there is absolutely no excuse for them not knowing who we are and where we can provide service. Amazingly, their Application states that there is no broadband internet at all for these locations where we had specifically shown them Lake Country had towers and yet they are seeking funding to run fiber to these locations. One particular community map I thought was interesting, was fiber being run to a single cul-de-sac where a relative of Carter lives, interestingly, the fiber does not go beyond that particular street. But I am sure this is just another coincidence, this has nothing to do with a good ole boy network of helping who you want, and forgetting about everyone else.
It has cost our family tens upon tens of thousands of dollars to defend the network that we worked so hard to build from all this deception and cheating on their VATI application. It was their responsibility from the go at question #2 to list existing providers. By them completely ghosting us, we have had to go on the defensive with countless man hours, and running all around collecting speed test data to prove we can provide the speeds. Thankfully, we met all the requirements in submitting a challenge to Mecklenburg Counties VATI application submitted by SPDC. The Commonwealth of Virginia has determined that we proved our service territory to them and that SPDC’s application will not receive state general funds managed and awarded through the VATI grant making process for areas considered served by us. This is a win for us, but still a loss for the citizens of Mecklenburg County because they are still as much as 3 years out on getting the broadband subsidized through these new awards, while had Lake Country received 1/10th of the same funding, a tower could have been put up and serving them in a matter of weeks to months, not years. Additionally, the amount of money that this has cost us, we could have provided service to another community.
Our family has dedicated the last 21 years to providing internet to the citizens of Mecklenburg County. We have built out a huge network that extends from one end of the County to the other just in the last 3 years without any major grants. Our main objective is to provide high speed internet to folks who everyone else has forgotten about. Doing so we have invested our blood, sweat, and tears, many – many tears lately over the loss of a family member – lots of credit, and reinvesting every penny we have back into building this network for our wonderful clients. Had we had the same fair access to this grant money, we could significantly expand our coverage for approximately 1/10 the cost of what they are seeking.
I just wanted to reference the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Public Procurement Act and let you decide if this grant process was conducted in a fair and impartial manner, with avoidance of any impropriety or appearance of impropriety:
The Virginia Public Procurement Act (VPPA) is set forth within §§2.2-4300 et seq. of the Code of Virginia. VPPA articulates Virginia’s public policy relating to the purchase of goods and services by public bodies. The General Assembly specifies the following ends to be served by VPPA: • That public bodies obtain high quality goods and services at reasonable cost; • That all procurement procedures be conducted in a fair and impartial manner, with avoidance of any impropriety or appearance of impropriety; and • That all qualified vendors have access to public business and that no vendor be arbitrarily or capriciously excluded. § 2.2-4300(C).
One last piece of information, Empower received grant money from the VATI Commission from last year. While we were out doing our speed tests to prove we can provide service in a particular area, a homeowner came out asking what we were doing. As we began to talk and explain who we were and what we were doing, he expressed his disgust with Empower who hired a contractor to run fiber down his street, which was completed in March. After multiple requests some 9 month later to be connected to the fiber, his request still goes unanswered. These are your tax grant dollars hard at work, just resting in the ground, not helping anyone but those that received the grant. But my response was, no worries, we can provide you with high-quality, high-speed internet service to you today!
Additionally, I was recently contacted while writing this by the Southside Broadband Coalition also outraged at the wasteful spending of grant monies in Halifax, again, part of the SPDC good ole boy network. They informed me of wasteful RDOF monies by a grant recipient which built a tower in Virgilina a year ago, which still sits with no equipment on it to provide any internet to anyone. Just like Mecklenburg Electric’s Empower (formerly owned by (BIT) Buggs Island Telephone), and their lack of actually connecting clients after 9 months, also just a few months’ shy of a year. And just like the customer I spoke to earlier, calls to the Halifax County Officials and SPDC to see when service will be turned on for this tower, go unanswered. I have attached to the bottom of our press release their information.
This saga will continue and repeat over and over unless these folks are held accountable for their actions. It is time that the citizens of Southside Virginia stand together and say enough is enough. This good ole boy club has got to go; it is hurting the citizens of this region as evidenced here. The Varner Family has been serving Southside for 21 years. We could not do what we do without our wonderful clients. We are truly blessed by your support. Can you imagine what more we could do with the proper funding and 21 years of experience? Please visit our website www.lciwifi.com for more information about us, and for more information on how to help, the best way is to join the Southside Citizen Broadband Coalition. Together, we can make a difference and get results.
The following is from the Southside Citizen Broadband Coalition: https://www.southsidebbroadbandcoalition.org
Good afternoon All,
Since we seem to be getting nowhere with our community’s reasonable request for a consistent communication of broadband implementation and deliverable schedule;
I am bringing in press/media members and those who can help the citizen’s cause, to get immediate movement and attention on our ignored requests for consistent communications and updates for our community of when each rural Halifax area will have reliable broadband( wired and wireless) signal and access.
We welcome the press’ efforts to FOIA and track the use of the broadband grant funds spent and those funds yet to be spent, and per Northam’s most recent funding efforts. We want to see best use of each dollar spent rather than allow NPO’s/grant recipients to eat up the grants and then leave us no better than it was before.
This entire effort started with a unequipped cell tower in Virgilina that was installed through a broadband grant that Wilkes Communication received. This tower has sat empty and unequipped for over 1 year with no date of when it will be active for broadband. No one at the county govt has an idea of when this tower will be active. Presently there seems to be a shell game occurring where communication companies who received broadband grants are being acquired and sold, thereby squandering grant funds and not improving broadband. Unless we draw a light to this plight, we believe that in the time the grant periods expire there will be no positive performance and many companies will disappear into the night.
Due to the mismanagement and failure to consistently communicate broadband progress, We have formed the Halifax Citizen Broadband Coalition to give voice to every Halifax citizen who is being left behind in this digital age
Halifax Citizen Broadband Coalition’s effort is apolitical and benefits ALL in Halifax county regardless of race, age and political party affiliation.
HCBC will be holding our first meeting, virtual and in person, in January 2022. Meeting Date/time/Location will be communicated through email/website/radio/newspaper.
I wanted to share a few articles about the cost to Halifax by not having reliable high speed internet in our county. This applies to all rural areas.
Benefits and cost of broadband expansion
Economic impact
Regarding rural areas not attracting workers and companies not wanting to relocate to rural areas due to lack of broadband. This also negates remote workers moving to our county , again due to no reliable high speed broadband.
Education- leaving kids behind in rural areas
Education- leaving kids behind in the digital age
Halifax Citizen Broadband Coalition
Executive summary:
In a county where less than 55% of households have access to reliable broadband and cellphone signal, the Halifax Citizens Broadband Coalition ( HCBC) was formed to address the delays, lack of communications, lack of accountability and mismanagement of implementing broadband access in our county.
The information age is here and Halifax county is being left behind each and every day. The lack of broadband access during Covid remote learning in Halifax public schools, led to the highest rates of failure and dropouts in 2020. This high rate of failure meant that Halifax county high school couldn’t even field a team of football players with passing grades, thereby having to cancel/forfeit the season.
Halifax county has dithered for decades in not addressing the issue of broadband access. It is unacceptable to allow this to continue.
We, HCBC, find it absolutely unacceptable that NASA can land and remote control a drone on Mars, yet Halifax county, 2 hours south of Richmond-one hour north of Raleigh- 3 hours west of NASA Langley HQ, cannot implement reliable broadband connectivity.
Our efforts will be to ensure that the broadband grant recipients are held accountable to delivery schedules and timelines, and do not waste broadband funds on purposes that do not create improved access to broadband in our rural communities and county. Example of waste, constructing a building in South Boston that has wired internet capability and yet not putting those funds to wireless/wired broadband access that benefits the rural areas of Halifax.
Who we are
We are concerned citizens with interest in improving our county and way of life for our community.
We are citizens from all walks of life who support the effort to improving broadband access in our rural communities so that no child is left behind in the digital age.
We understand the importance that broadband access has and which will improve the economic vitality and potential of our rural areas.
Group mission statement:
To promote broadband solutions and immediate implementation of (wireless and wired) access for ALL Halifax County residents and rural communities.
To involve Halifax Citizens and non-resident Halifax property owners and give voice to the neglect and dithering that has slowed and delayed broadband implementation in our county.
To promote consistent communications, responsiveness and accountability from our elect, county agencies and broadband grant recipients to keep the Halifax Community informed and ensure that all broadband grant funds are not misused or wasted. To hold the grant recipients accountable for delivery on timelines.
To promote a dual solution of wired and wireless broadband technology that does not create broadband monopolies ( captured consumers) in our communities. Dual solutions of wired and wireless promotes fair market and maintain continuity of broadband access.
To monitor the Broadband grant spending and measure against broadband improvement and access in our County to ensure no waste is occurring.
To be a voice of and for the community to promote focus and priority for broadband access in our Community and County.
To require Halifax county and the broadband grant recipients to consistently and continually update the timelines and deliverables of when and where broadband access has already been implemented and what areas are next.
- We want Halifax county to list the Broadband connection deliverable schedule on the home page and to commit to continually updating this information.
- We want Halifax county to hold accountable any broadband grant recipients to the delivery schedule.
- We want a monthly broadband progress update for each Board of Supervisor meeting
- Ideally each broadband grant recipient should be on hand to provide an update for their Halifax area of work and progress being made
To promote enhanced education and innovation into computer science
- Software/hardware development
- Cyber security
- Robotics,
- agronomic science
- robotic/autonomous farm machinery innovation hub
- computerized farming practices and crop management,etc
To promote remote workers and companies to consider relocating to Halifax county once we have reliable high speed broadband access
In closing, there is no more time to waste on this. We must not allow our youth and our beautiful county to be left behind because of mismanagement and apathy.
I welcome any calls or emails from the press on our HCBC and our efforts to improving the quality of life in our communities.
Dear Mr. Gosney,
I have been traveling for much of the past month and had an opportunity this morning to review Mr. Wright’s email from December 14th.
I am not sure if you have had an opportunity to reply to his message and I would be quite interested in the answers to the questions posed. If you have replied, could you provide a copy?
In addition, could you provide the source of the grant funds to MBC and the specific stipulations for the grant approvals? Finally, has there been any auditing of MBC performance relative to the grant(s)?
On a separate item, Mr. Wright mentioned, there has been an empty steel wireless tower standing in the town of Virgilina for more than a year. It serves as one more example of the local government’s ineffectiveness. I wonder who is ultimately responsible for this latest debacle?
Finally, it is time for concrete action. Rural taxpayers in Halifax County continue to subsidize large towns relative to the services received. I don’t think it is too much to ask for timelines and deliverables. I look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Robert Pierce
Blue Wing, LLC.
Dear Ms. Gosney,
Good afternoon.
I am contacting you to see how we can get the companies that have absorbed the Broadband grant funds in the Southside to show some sign of improved broadband they have provided and or will provide. Looking for some milestones and dates on a calendar and communicated to the public describing their progress and future efforts. I got a bad feeling a whole lot of that money is being ate up in employee salaries and building more brick and mortar buildings that do not improve our broadband signals.
MBC whom built a $3million dollar brick and mortar building, has done almost nothing else to improve broadband in rural areas of Halifax. Every night almost every light in the new MBC building in South Boston is left on. I guess the broadband grant is paying the power bill too?
The optics on that concern is bad for the area and shows that there is NO oversight nor attention being paid to proper use of the broadband funds/grants.
No other project that I have seen in state/federal space allows a non-deliverable schedule. But here it seems the broadband recipients are on their own to decide if they want to show progress and few, if any, communicate expected delivery and improvement of broadband services.
Right now, only the broadband grant recipients know when we may get broadband in our areas and to our homes.
The communication on this is absolutely horrific. In Halifax less than 55% of the households have access to reliable broadband. This is a travesty and I want to be sure that we begin working towards a plan that each broadband grant recipient communicates a plan that outlines and communicates progress to bringing broadband access to the underserved areas.
For example, we have had a cell tower installed in Virgilina for well over 1 year and all it needs is equipment. Wilkes will not return messages and has left our community in the dark. Meanwhile, we have Lake Internet who could furnish equipment needed to activate the tower but it seems we are now relying on Mecklenburg power for fiber optic.
We need a plan that includes redundancy, both wired and wireless options for broadband signal.
It would be for the benefit of our community if the SSPC could begin to request a timetable of improved broadband connectivity for the underserved areas of the Southside.
Call or email if any questions.
Sincerely,
Donald Wright