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Kittitas County, Washington <br />BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS <br />District One <br />Cory Wright <br />October 4,2022 <br />Mr. Mark Vasconi <br />Director, Washington State Broadband Office <br />Washington State Department of Commerce <br />l01l Plum St SE <br />Olympia, WA 98504 <br />VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL <br />mark. vasconi@commerce.wa. gov <br />District Two <br />LauraOsiadacz <br />District Three <br />Breft Wachsmith <br />RE: Kittitas County Comments on Fall2022 Round 2 Accelerator Grants Notice of <br />Funding Opportunity (NOFO) <br />Dear Mr. Vasconi <br />Thank you for the opportunity to respond to WSBO's Seotember 15-2022,Call for Comments. <br />addressing considerations in the scoring criteria for the Fall2022 NoFo. <br />Kittitas County did not apply for any funding in the first round of Accelerator Grant awards as <br />a study was underway at that time to fully assess countywide unserved and underserved areas. <br />However, the county does intend to apply in the second round. Additionally, Kittitas County <br />received $3.8 million of Public Works Board grant funding to build two projects serving current <br />unserved areas and has been working with private providers to partner on the design and build <br />of these networks along with potential future projects. <br />Given the delay of release from April to now November 2022 and discussion of potential rule <br />changes in the upcoming NOFO, private partners have understandably been reticent to commit <br />to any agreements without a clear understanding of the final rules. Our timeline to secure a <br />partnership for current PWB funding, as well as future builds to potentially be funded by <br />Accelerator and other grants, was set back significantly as supply chain issues and inflationary <br />costs accrued throughout the industry. While we are confident that an agreement is rapidly <br />closing with our potential partner, changing rules between the first and second round of critical <br />broadband grant funding has brought uncertainty and, with it, additional costs that will result in <br />contraction of potential projects and ultimate reduction of broadband service to unserved homes <br />and anchor institutions. <br />As a future applicant of the Acceleration Grant funding, we support the following criteria of <br />future grant monies administered by WSBO: <br />Kittitas County Courthouse . 205 West 5h Avenue, STE 108 . Ellensburg , W A 9g926 <br />(s09) 962-7 s08 .F AX (s09) 962_7 679