Federal red tape snags port fiber project

The pause button has been hit on the Port of Whitman County’s $12 million project to build an information pipeline connecting the Palouse with Spokane.

The port has still not signed a contract to receive grant funds, reported Joe Poire, port executive director, and Bruce Ensley, the port’s attorney, to port commissioners at their meeting Monday morning.

The port in March was awarded $10 million in federal stimulus money as part of an overarching statewide project to bring broadband internet to rural Washington.

Northwest Open Access Network, or NoaNet, received $135 million in a pair of stimulus grants to connect fiber optic cable in 1,300 previously unserved miles of the state.

The port must put up $2 million as a local match for the federal dollars. The port’s project calls for four bundles of glass fiber optic wire, each with 144 strands, to transport information between Spokane and Clarkston, running along highway easements through Spangle, Rosalia, Oakesdale, Garfield and Palouse.

The local money was to be recouped by leasing the strands to telecommunications companies.

Ensley said that is where the snag lies.

Neither the port nor NoaNet is sure what federal guidelines will apply to allowing outside firms to use the fibers.

Ensley said longstanding common law does not allow an agency to transfer property built with federal dollars. As an example, he said someone who sets up a diabetes clinic with federal money is forbidden from closing the clinic and leasing it to another party.

Will the feds allow the port to lease the fiber to private telecommunications companies? If so, what hoops will have to be jumped through to assign leases?

Port Commissioner Don Cox asked if there are any precedents related to leasing of fiber lines developed with federal money.

Poire said the whole project is uncharted territory.

“This is stimulus money,” said Poire. “There are no rules for this.”

The port must sign an agreement with NoaNet to specify who will hire engineers and contractors for the project and, perhaps most importantly, who owns the infrastructure once it is built.

Ability to lease fiber to private firms is all that is holding up that agreement, said Poire.

Ensley said the port’s lease question can only be answered by the feds. But NoaNet, as the primary grant recipient, is the only entity that is allowed to speak with the feds about the project.

Though the port asked NoaNet to get an answer to the lease question months ago, they have learned the question has just recently been sent to officials in Washington, D.C., said Poire.

Port commissioners had been scheduled to discuss detailed plans on the project at a special all-day session Nov. 1. Without knowing how, or perhaps even if, the project will go forth, that session was cancelled.

“The fiber project is one of those humungous elephants,” said Port Commissioner John Love. “It’s going to impact a lot of our strategic thinking going forward.”

As part of the stimulus bill’s “shovel-ready” requirements, the entire project is supposed to be completed by 2013.