The Starke County Commissioners acted on a request from Kankakee Valley REMC (KVREMC) to reduce permit fees for overhead line placement for a high-speed internet communication project in Starke County.
Josh Pepple from KVREMC said the company is interconnecting substations with distribution metering points. There will be 75 miles of fiber throughout the county at six delivery points.
According to KVREMC, the initial estimate for the cost of the fiber ring investment in Starke County will be about $3 million.
There will be a connection from the KVREMC headquarters in Wanatah east to Oregon-Davis Schools, with service down U.S. 35 to Knox, to Bass Station, to Lena Park and North Judson stations, to a future location in the Knox Industrial Park, and then to the western parts of Starke County.
The project will begin this year and continue into 2022.
Like many other area government leaders have done for similar projects, the commissioners agreed to reduce the permit fees by 80 percent toward the project which comes to about $5,900.
