PUBLIC COMMENT NOTICE

Bedford County has received notice from the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission requesting public comment on its award of a Last Mile Broadband Grant in partnership with Comcast Cable Communications. The project area to benefit from the grant is located on the Bedford County side of Smith Mountain Lake between the Blue Ridge Parkway and Bourassa State Forest. Areas affected include those in and around State Route 24 from the Blue Ridge Parkway to Route 608, including some areas traversed by Routes 634, 653, and 655; and shoreline neighborhoods between Route 122 and Bourassa State Forest. Comcast proposes to complete the construction of the area with a hybrid fiber coaxial network (“HFC”) solution. Upon completion of the Bedford County Project build, Comcast will be able to offer its full suite of products and services to residents in the proposed service area, including broadband service of up to 1 gbps down and 35 mpbs up for residential HFC customers, up to 2 gbps for residential customers choosing fiber to the home, and up to 10 gbps for business customers, in addition to advanced video, voice, and home security services.

Additionally, the Tobacco Commission and Bedford County would like to have information and comments as to other broadband providers in the project area with broadband service of 10 mbps down and 1 mbps up.

Public comment will be open from Wednesday, May 23, 2018 to Friday, June 22, 2018.

In order to provide a record to the Tobacco Commission, comments should be addressed to G. Carl Boggess, County Administrator for Bedford County. The preferred methods of comment would be by email to publiccomment@bedfordcountyva.gov or by letter sent to G. Carl Boggess 122 E. Main St., Suite 202, Bedford, VA 24523.  Comments will also be received by telephone (540) 425-9003. These comments will be recorded.  A complete list of all of the comments will be sent to the Tobacco Commission.