SCIOTO COUNTY- Expanded broadband is coming for Scioto County, according to the Scioto County commissioners.

This week, the commissioners received two sealed bids for the expansion of broadband Internet service for areas of the county which either are underserved or aren’t served at all. The county has received an American Rescue Plan grant to fund the project.

Commission Chair Bryan Davis said they need to revisit some language in the grant before opening the bids, however.

“We did receive two of the RFP’s back from Charter Communications and also from SOCS Fiber for broadband expansion services,” he said.

The commissioners will be reviewing studies and coverage maps created by such entities as the Ohio Valley Regional Development Commission and other infrastructure experts to determine the best investment to address the county’s needs.

He was careful to point out that this expansion project is unlikely to fix everyone’s broadband accessibility issues, however.

“While this is not a fix for everybody, far from it, it does further the goal,” Davis said. “We can’t award this today, we have to go through these sealed bids to see what they’re proposing.”

The next procedure would be to accept the requests for proposals, revisit the grant wording and the county’s needs, and determine the scoring to be used in awarding the bid.