FAIRMONT, W.Va. – The Fairmont City Council hosted their regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday night to discuss an ordinance on fiber optic and other cable-related facilities.
The council held a reading of an ordinance that grants a non-exclusive franchise to West Virginia Fiber LLC. for purposes of constructing, operating and maintaining fiber optic or other cable and related facilities used or useful for the transmission of telecommunications services within the city limits of Fairmont.
The council unanimously approved the adoption of the ordinance which allows the city and WV Fiber LLC. to approve the form and content of the franchise agreement authorizing limitations and franchise fees.
“So, this will provide our citizens and businesses with one gig, one gig down, gigabit city-level services to every household and every business across our community. So this is a very exciting opportunity because WV Fiber is bringing something that is currently not available to the city of Fairmont,” said Shae Strait, director of planning and development for the City of Fairmont.
Strait also said the addition of WV Fiber LLC. is important for a multitude of reasons because it will allow local businesses to compete better nationally and internationally. He also said it would attract people to live in the city and be able to work from home.
“We will be one of only a few cities in the state of West Virginia that have that level of service across our municipality. So, that will definitely give us a competitive edge, let alone looking at national scale in which we will be in the leadership of that,” Strait said.
Fairmont City Council also unanimously adopted a resolution certifying its approval of shelter activities of the Task Force on Domestic Violence and Hope Inc. that allows the mayor to authorize and deliver a local government certification.