The Greeneville Energy Authority board met yesterday morning and held a public hearing on broadband services.
With no attendees to speak for or against it, CEO Chuck Bowlin presented results from a survey to the board on what the community wants to see. Bowlin said the results were overall positive and that Greeneville Light and Power was enthusiastically supportive of fiber optic high speed Internet services.
According to the survey, 96% of people in Greene County were interested or semi-interested in switching their services to broadband. 5.8 out of 10 said they were satisfied with their current services. Customers from Greeneville Light and Power were at 8.8 out of 10 for high satisfaction with broadband services.
Board members were supportive and excited for the services as it’s been in discussion for quite some time now. Services would start with serving the central portion of the county within the city limits but the goal is to expand and reach everyone throughout the county. There will be a minimum of 14 days before taking action with the plan and moving forward. At that time any written comments or questions will be given to the board, and ideally the plan would be put into action.
The board also approved the purchase request for broadband routers and vehicle leases. Cost for the vehicles was over $1 million with no actual date of when some could be received. Bowlin stated there are still some vehicles that haven’t been received that were requested back in 2021.
