Pole Agreement Problems Persist for County Broadband Project

SCHOHARIE COUNTY _ Construction crews working on Schoharie County's $33.6 million broadband project will look to bury more fiberoptic cable as putting it on poles continues to be difficult.

That was the assessment given by county Economic Development Coordinator John Crescimanno at the Friday, April 17 county Board of Supervisors meeting.

The project is aimed at giving every county resident the ability to connect with the Internet and also help some residents get better connectivity. However, county Supervisor Donald Airey mentioned at the meeting the possibility of a "rescoping" of the project and the chance "certain areas of the project wouldn't be completed."

That raised alarms among fellow Supervisors, with board member Earl VanWormer saying that possible outcome "would be a real shame." County BOS Chairman Bill Federice added "I don't think the board would stand for that."

Crescimanno said "There's always the potential that is something that could happen. (But) we're not looking at that at this moment. Right now we're talking about going buried."

Earlier in the discussion, he stated that he's working with the ConnectAll Program of Empire State Development to "see if we can go buried with this. If that comes in the form of more money, it will not come from the county."

The ESD program is providing $30 million of the $33.6 million cost of the project through a reimbursable grant, with the county picking up the remaining $3.6 million from its funds.

Crescimanno said the warmer weather has enabled construction to ramp up. However, reaching agreements with pole owners like National Grid and Verizon to string fiberoptic cable on their poles remains a persistent problem.

"John is working hard to secure additional funds. We'll try to bury," Airey said. "Pole attachment agreement issues are extremely complex and disturbing, and we have a high level of exposure."

In other news from the April 17 meeting, the county BOS approved a motion to eliminate a part-time Assistant District Attorney position and create a full-time ADA position with a starting annual salary up to $120,000 based on experience.

County District Attorney Christopher Luhr had submitted a detailed written justification for the move, making the point among many others that Schoharie County lags behind other counties of similar population in its number of full-time ADAs. Before the April 17 vote, the county had one full-time ADA and two part-time ADAs, Luhr wrote.

While the recommendation is one full-time ADA for every 8,628 in population, Schoharie County's ratio before the addition was one per 15,000, he added. The DA's office needed more help with its heavy and varied workload, Luhr indicated.

Another full-time ADA "will allow for greater attention to cases and increase prosecution participation in case development through interaction with law enforcement partners," Luhr wrote.

"It will put Schoharie County more in line with staffing compared to similar-sized county District Attorney's offices," he added. "An additional full-time ADA will also give the DA's office resources and time to implement a revenue generating Traffic and Penal Law Diversion Program as well as allow for the pursuit of additional grant funding."