Supervisors hear Broadband Update; Approve Rezone of Old State Prison

By WILLIAM PAINE

Patriot Publishing

Tom Innes of All Points Broadband on Monday gave the Pulaski County Board of Supervisors an update on the deployment plan to provide high speed internet access to every location in the county.

According to Innes, All Points Broadband, fiber construction could begin by September of this year.

Just days before Monday’s meeting, All Points Broadband and Appalachian Power resolved a dispute involving “make ready” construction work on Apco’s utility poles. Make ready construction involves prepping the utility poles for broadband line installation, ensuring that safety standards are met.

All Points expects make ready construction on all utility poles to be completed by April 2026.

All Points divided Pulaski County into six service areas, each with a cabinet that will receive and then distribute the internet signal in that service area. Two of these internet cabinets have already been assembled and the rest will soon be placed in each of the four remaining service areas. These cabinets resemble a refrigerator on a concrete pad.

The first upstream All Points Broadband connection to the internet is expected to be in the Pulaski 5 service area (Fairlawn) by October 2025.

According to Innes, internet service will be made available on a rolling basis and that All Points Broadband would update customers two to three months before service will be available in their sector.  Innes encouraged customers to visit the APBfiber.com website to check on progress in their respective service areas. The make ready construction will likely result in some road closures and potential delays during these upcoming months.

The All Points Broadband Deployment is a partnership between All Points, Pulaski County, the Virginia Department of Housing and Urban Development and the New River Valley Regional Commission, which serves as administrator for the project.

Costing a total of $56 million to implement, the All Points Broadband deployment is the largest public/private infrastructure project in the history of Pulaski County.

“Pulaski County took advantage of the perfect opportunity,” said County Administrator Jonathan Sweet. Adding that the project to bring high speed internet to every part of the county, “didn’t cost taxpayers in Pulaski County a single dime.”

Sweet went on to explain how the project was paid for by tapping state resources, as well as resources provided by Appalachian Power. All Points Broadband invested $25 million into the project and the remaining money was taken from CARES ACT funds, which was procured by the federal government during the pandemic.

In other news from Monday’s meeting, two public hearings were held involving a 3 ½ acre parcel off Old Route 11 that used to house the New River Valley Unit 1 State Prison facility.

According to Zoning Administrator Markie Saunders, Jeffrey Buchinsky of West Street Properties requested a change in zoning from Industrial to Low Density Residential at the old prison with plans to develop a Crisis Therapeutic Home. Buchinsky is working with New River Valley Community Services and their REACH program to provide a therapeutic home with six beds to serve individuals with developmental disabilities. This home is intended for stays of up to one month depending on the needs of the client. The average expected stay is 14 days. The closest facility offering similar services is in Richmond.

County administration recommended the zone change, the planning commission voted unanimously to approve it and no one spoke at the public hearing following Saunders’ presentation. The supervisors granted the zone change.

Saunders sat down only to rise again to present the supervisors with a recommendation for a Special Use permit for another building on that same parcel of land, which is to be remodeled into a Crisis Stabilization Unit for New River Valley Community Services.

The 10-bed facility is intended to give local children experiencing a psychiatric crisis a place to stay and is intended for short-term stays anywhere from 7 to 14 days depending on the need of the child.

As before, no one spoke at the public hearing after the presentation and the supervisors unanimously agreed to grant the special use permit.

Saunders and her staff made several changes to the county’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) and asked for approval of the changes.  Repair shops were given some restrictions regarding buffer zones and vehicles per lot, but much attention went to camping ordinances in the UDO. According to Saunders, short term camping was technically not allowed anywhere in the county except for organized campsites.

The revised UDO states that recreational vehicles, campers, yurts and tents are allowed to stay for 10 days if the property owner gives written permission and a camping permit is granted by the county zoning office. Campers can ask for a seven-day extension permit after their 10-day period expires. These permits are free but must be issued by the zoning office.

If the campers stay longer, they could be fined and evicted by the county, so long as the property owner obtained a permit. If the property owner allows the campers to stay without written consent and without a permit, the property owner will be responsible for the removal of campers and any fines that are issued.

Long term camping is allowed for up to three years, so long as the property owner is also constructing a principle dwelling that has all the appropriate permits.

Lastly, the new UDO states that the stripping of topsoil is prohibited when constructing a solar project, as there are several alternative methods that are viable and less destructive to the land.

Glenn Wilson of Energy Right addressed council following the presentation and congratulated the supervisors for adopting the UDO guideline than bans the stripping of topsoil to construct solar arrays.

The public hearing closed and the supervisors unanimously approved of the changes to the UDO.

In the citizen’s comments period of the meeting, Besty Mabry told the supervisors of her concerns regarding a data center slated to be built somewhere in Pulaski County.

According to Mabry, Delegate Jed Arnold’s office confirmed that Pulaski County received $7.5 million from the general fund “for site development to attract potential data centers.”

Mabry mentioned the enormous amounts of water and energy that these data centers require and asked if costs would go up for both if one were built in Pulaski County. Mabry’s time expired before she finished but requested the supervisors consider these points before agreeing to support a data center.

At her turn at the podium, Susan Peters reminded the supervisors of the upcoming celebrations for the 250^th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Later, in the supervisors comment period, Draper’s Dirk Compton said, “Listening to the gentleman from All Points Broadband, I was reminded of a meeting with myself, Laura and Jonathan in Richmond about six years ago. Time was of the essence and we had to move on this … and the discussions we had that day saved the county a tremendous amount of money and it put us on the cutting edge … as Jonathan said, we’re getting some projects done in 2025.”

“That meeting saved us $300,000,” said Sweet.

“That was a good day in Richmond,” exclaimed Laura Walters, Chair of the Pulaski County Board of Supervisors.