Boyd and Carter County were awarded more than $11 million in funding during the Appalachian Regional Commission annual conference on Monday. The award is a result of a bipartisan agreement signed in April 2021 by Governor Andy Beshear. The agreement allocated over $300 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars to the Kentucky Broadband Deployment Fund.
Brandon Burton is the Judge Executive of Carter County. He said the money will be granted to Foothills Connect to install optic internet cable in rural areas of Carter and Boyd County.
“This is huge. I mean, we’ve been really behind for our internet here in Carter County for quite some time. When we came into the office, it’s been one of our biggest things to attack as hard as we could and get our internet better here in the county,” said Burton.
Burton added Foothills is already working to identify where the biggest needs are in the county, so they can begin the work of addressing connectivity.
Also announced on Monday was $378,000 for Rowan County road repairs. McBrayer Road, Morgan Fork Road and Sugarloaf Mountain Road will all be resurfaced with the funding.
Rowan Judge Executive Harry Clark said the Transportation Cabinet surveyed the roads and rated them on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the worst.
“They all graded in the ten. They haven’t been resurfaced in probably close to 15 years for some of them. We’ve patched in parts and put pieces in but, overall, really resurfacing, it’s probably been 15 years. So, this is a tremendous help to Rowan County,” said Clark.
County officials will meet with the county’s resurfacing contractor this week to see if they will have time to address the three roads before asphalt plants close in November. Clark said he is hopeful the resurfacing work will be done this year, but it may not be done until Spring 2024.