Port staff asks, ‘What now?’

Port of Whitman officials are hammering out the details on how to spend a $9.8 million grant it received earlier this month from a federal broadband stimulus package.

“Shovel-ready” mandates in the grant package mean funded projects must be completed within three years of the grant award.

Debbie Snell, properties and development manager for the port, told commissioners at their meeting last week the project may have to change because of the accelerated time frame.

The port’s plan was to bury fiber optic cable along the right-of-way of the state-owned P & L railroad along the east side of the c...