Streaming your favorite television shows or doing your online homework assignments is gradually getting a little easier in Warren County, thanks to some federal funding and support from Warren Fiscal Court.

The county’s six magistrates and county Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon heard from two providers – Warren Rural Electric Cooperative and Charter Communications (doing business locally as Spectrum) – Wednesday and both said completion of separate projects to roll out fiber optic cable to underserved parts of the county is only months away.

WRECC is working under a 24-month, $10 million contract with the county to extend fiber optic cable and bring broadband internet service to the final underserved parts of the county through a partnership with North Central Telephone Cooperative.

In addition, both WRECC and Charter were awarded contracts last year through the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund created to inject billions of dollars into the construction and operation of rural broadband networks.

According to WRECC Vice President for Engineering and Operations Butch Massey, both the county-funded and RDOF-backed projects are ahead of schedule.

Massey said WRECC has extended cable past homes of 12,500 members so far, primarily in the eastern and western parts of the county, and had more than 3,200 of them register for the service being provided by Tennessee-based NCTC.

“We should have fiber fully installed by the end of the year,” Massey told the magistrates. “We’ll be about eight months ahead of schedule.”

Massey said the support from the county and the $2.3 million WRECC and partners NCTC and the Franklin Electric Plant Board are receiving in RDOF money have helped expedite the rollout.

“I think it (fiber extension) would’ve happened, but this funding allowed us to greatly reduce the time it took to complete it,” he said.

Although it will wrap up its work in Warren County soon, WRECC will continue working on RDOF-funded projects in Grayson, Butler and Edmonson counties.

All the projects, Massey said, are delivering cable that has the potential to provide internet speeds exceeding 1-gigabit.

While not as far along as WRECC, Charter is working through a $1.2 million RDOF contract that calls for it to reach about 1,588 more homes in rural parts of Warren County.

Jason Keller, Charter’s senior director of government affairs, said at Wednesday’s fiscal court meeting that Charter has completed service to 785 of those homes and is “building more every day.”

Keller said he expects Charter to complete its Warren County RDOF areas by “the first half of next year.”

All told, Connecticut-based Charter was awarded RDOF grants to provide broadband internet service to about 100,000 Kentucky homes. The company is also participating in the FCC’s $14 billion Affordable Connectivity Program that helps qualifying applicants pay for internet service.

That program could help Charter reach more homes, Keller said.

“Once we’re done with the initial (RDOF) project, we’ll keep going throughout 2023,” he said.

First District Magistrate Doug Gorman said efforts to extend broadband service to more county residents is “changing the county for the better.”

Combined with a recent city of Bowling Green agreement with StuppFiber LLC to bring more broadband service to city residents, the WRECC and Charter projects are helping Buchanon realize a goal that has been among his top priorities as he completes next month a 29-year tenure as judge-executive.

“I’m encouraged by the numbers,” Buchanon said. “This is something we’ve worked on for 10 or 12 years. Thankfully, we’re going to see this finalized in the next few months.”

Fiscal court also approved these spending items at Wednesday’s meeting:

• A county road department 72-month lease agreement with Enterprise Fleet Management for two Ford F-550 dump trucks with plows and salt spreaders in an amount not to exceed $1,242.06 per month for each vehicle.

• An expenditure of $3,252 to Bluegrass Recreation for playground belt swings and benches.

• An expenditure of $1,353.64 to REM Co. for repairs to a laundry system in the Warren County Regional Jail.

The next scheduled fiscal court meeting is Monday, Nov. 14 at 9 a.m.