Story Category: The Bay Net Exclusives »

Construction is now underway for the St. Mary’s County portion of a state-wide Fiber Optic Cable project. Monies for the project came from the President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)> Maryland received $115 million for the project.

According to the Maryland Department of Information Technology’s (DoIT) website: “The One Maryland Broadband Network (OMBN) is a planned 1,294-mile fiber optic broadband network that will link 1,006 government facilities and community “anchor institutions” in every county in the state, while interconnecting and extending three independent networks:

·NetworkMaryland, the statewide network operated by DoIT

·the Inter-County Broadband Network (ICBN), a consortium of 9 central Maryland counties and cities

·the Maryland Broadband Cooperative (MDBC), a rural non-profit carrier

“OMBN will be built with $115,240,581 in grant funding awarded in September 2010 through the federal Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). The award, which will be matched by about $43 million in cash and in-kind contributions from the state and participating local jurisdictions, was the third-largest BTOP grant nationwide. For more details, see OMBN’s Recovery.gov report.”

The Maryland Broadband Cooperative will operate the network in Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore. Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland is one of three regional agencies partnering for the Maryland Broadband Cooperative.

Construction in St. Mary’s County will be at the following locations:

·State Roads

§MD-4, west from Patuxent Blvd to MD-235

§MD-5, from MD-235 to MD-243

§MD-235, from MD-4 to 300 feet south of St. Johns Rd.

·County Roads

§Patuxent Blvd., from Myrtle Point Park to MD-4

§Mervell Dean Rd., from Airport Rd. to Joy Chapel Rd.

§Hurry Rd., from Dynard to Colton Point Rd.

Leonardtown Town Administrator Laschelle McKay told the town council on Monday that the contractor has been very easy to work with. Originally the plan was to run the cable down Washington Street, disrupting the recently completed streetscape project. Instead the contractor has agreed to run the line down Lawrence Avenue.

Homes along the construction route are being contacted about the construction through an information tab placed on the front door knob. The tab says that more information on the project can be obtained at http://doit.maryland.gov/ombn or by calling 1 (855) 876-1804.