By Aila Boyd aboyd@ourvalley.org
The Botetourt County Broadband Commission held its monthly meeting last Friday. The meeting addressed the evaluation process that the commission will use to score the various PPEA (Public-Private Education Act) proposals that it will receive in the near future and developments pertaining to telehealth/telemedicine.
The Board of Supervisors approved a resolution at its March meeting which authorized the county administration to issue a PPEA to identify partners to provide fiber services to over 1,490 addressed locations including 91 businesses and gave the Broadband Commission the ability to review and recommend the awarding of contracts.
According to documentation included in the packet for the March meeting of the Board of Supervisors, the PPEA is the legislative framework that enables the county to enter into agreements authorizing private entities to design, construct, improve, maintain, and operate qualifying public construction or infrastructure projects.
Sandie Terry, president of Rural Broadband Consulting, previously illustrated the difference between a PPEA and an RFP (request for proposal) by saying that a standard RFP is for buying “widgets” and that they take an “all or nothing approach.” Alternatively, PPEAs allow the private sector to pick and choose service areas, support multiple partners, support creative financing, and support public-private partnerships.
The selection process for proposals will follow the following target dates:
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The county will receive proposals from providers by May 21.
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Members of the Commission will submit their individual scores to Terry by May 30.
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Terry will deliver the consolidated scores, questions for providers, and a proposed interview agenda to the Commission by June 7.
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The Commission will interview providers between June 10-21.
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The Commission will make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors on June 25.
The proposal evaluation criteria include the following categories, which add up to 100: 20 points for qualifications and experience, 15 points for customer service, 20 points for financial capability, and 45 points for special requirements. The special requirements category addresses the concept for providing coverage in identified areas of need, the total number of customers currently served including residential, business, and government, the price for development of a detailed broadband network design, and any assumptions of ownership and operation of the network. Terry noted that as long as a proposal meets the minimum requirements, it should receive half of the total number of points available in each section. If a proposal exceeds all of the requirements, it can earn up to the total number of points available for each section.
Each member of the Broadband Commission will independently review and score each proposal. Then, Terry will combine individual scores into overall scores for each of the proposals, maintaining the weighted scoring. A shortlist will be created based on the overall scores.
“I applaud the Commission and the people on this Commission for doing what they’ve done because we would never be in the situation that we are today if it wasn’t for a lot of different people who have participated,” Dr. Mac Scothorn, the chairman of the Broadband Commission, said towards the end of the meeting.
Jason Ferguson, chief of Fire and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) for Botetourt County, was on hand to shed light on discussions that the county is currently having about telehealth/telemedicine.
“Some of what telehealth/telemedicine could do for us aside from providing more physician interaction while we’re out in the field is it may very well help in scenarios of freeing up emergency ambulances to take care of the heart attack victim or the traumatic injury victim as opposed to something that can be scheduled but is not time sensitive,” Ferguson said.
“This is a savings all the way around,” Scothorn said in regard to telehealth/telemedicine.
It was also noted that the county has been in contact with officials from Carilion Clinic in regard to the way in which telehealth/telemedicine can best be utilized throughout the county.
