Warren County Commissioner Tricia Durbin said broadband development would be a focus of hers in 2024.

At the outset, that will include playing the waiting game.

She told the board during Monday’s work session that the county is still waiting to under back on applications for state broadband funding submitted by westpa.net, Breezeline and Verizon.

“A number submitted in which we had both endorsed them as well as provided some match if there was a match requested from us,” she said.

That match total was in the area of $700,000.

The last board of commissioners decided that providing match dollars from the county’s federal American Rescue Plan allocation would be more effective than trying to undertake projects on its own.

Durbin said the providers had “quite a few households they were interested in lighting up… if they were funded.”

The county contracted with a firm to put together a broadband plan for Warren County and Durbin said a decision will need to be made about whether to continue with that effort to avoid potentially doubling up efforts undertaken by the state.

“They’ve done a portion of their work,” she said. “I don’t think we in Warren County want to” duplicate the state’s planning efforts, which may be similar.

REASSESSMENT

Chief Assessor Brian Bull said that residential reassessment efforts are nearing the 50 percent mark.

About 38 percent of properties that aren’t built on have been accessed while nearly three percent of properties have been inaccessible to assessors. Just over 200 people have also refused to participate.

Bull said that he’s looking for individuals who would be willing to serve on an auxiliary assessment appeal board.

That’s open to “basically anybody familiar with the real estate market,” he said.