LEBANON, Va. -- The Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority is infusing $2 million into Southwest Virginia's broadband Internet infrastructure, officials announced Thursday.
The money, which came from natural gas severance tax, is going to the Cumberland Plateau and Lenowisco planning districts for use in Russell, Tazewell, Buchanan, Dickenson, Wise, Lee and Scott counties to provide broadband infrastructure to help with business retention and growth.
"You can't operate without it anymore," said Larry Carr, executive director of the Cumberland Plateau Company, the planning district's nonprofit corporation, noting the important role broadband has played in job creation and private investment in the area in the past few years."
Mike Quillen, treasurer of VCEDA and CEO of Alpha Natural Resources, compared this broadband Internet investment to the 1980s expansion of highway, water and sewer services -- a utility needed not just by the giants of industry but "all the other jobs, the five and 10-people employers that are the backbone of our region and always have been."
Jonathan Belcher, executive director of VCEDA, said the number of jobs created and retained because of the project is already greater than the 100 jobs per $1 million spent that the Cumberland Plateau Company predicted in its July 30 grant application.
Del. Bud Phillips, D-Castlewood, said the investment, in addition to helping business, is also a step toward another goal: bringing high-speed Internet to the masses.
"The next challenge for us to do is to make sure this beautiful technology, this world-class technology, is made available to our citizens," said Phillips, whose constituents live in Russell, Dickenson and Wise counties.
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