Nearly 1,500 Marshall County residents to receive broadband access by 2026

MARSHALL COUNTY, W.Va. ( WTRF ) – Some residents living in the rural areas of Marshall County are currently without or have little access to broadband.

At the start of the year, Governor Jim Justice awarded CityNet $9.2 million to expand internet access in Wetzel, Marshall and parts of Ohio County.

Melissa O’Brien, External Affairs Manager for CityNet Valerie Piko with Regional Economic Development (RED) attended the commission meeting Tuesday morning to update everyone on progress.

O’Brien says workers will hit the ground running here very soon, with an expected completion date of December 2026.

“About 88 miles of that will be in Marshall County and over 1500 households [within the county] will be impacted by this project. Something as simple as checking fire hydrants use needs, high speed internet. So, I think across the board, homeschooling, public education, access to health care, [and for other] economic developments… [internet access] is really not a want anymore. It is absolutely a need.”

Melissa O’Brien | External Affairs Manager, CityNet

“Even for those areas where maybe they already have some kind of service available, competition is king. And so, we hope to see prices coming down and just opportunity for residents to have reliable access. I mean, so many families along these routes have never streamed anything on Netflix before. And to a lot of families, that’s something that’s really important! But more importantly, is having access to health care opportunities and to educational opportunities.”

Valerie Piko | Program Development Manager, Regional Economic Development Partnership

O’Brien says that many families have to travel a long distance from their homes just to access the internet in the areas where broadband access is low or non-existent.

She explained not having access to reliable internet creates a barrier for people in all walks of life.

Between Wetzel, Marshall and Ohio counties, about 3400 households will be affected by this broadband project.

O’Brian and Piko both commented on the importance of internet service provider competition and its ability to decrease internet prices.

Marshall County is contributing around $725,000 to help with broadband access, which will be given to the Regional Economic Development partnership and loaned to CityNet.

If there are leftover funds from what county commissioners contributed for the project, it will be used to further expand broadband access or other economic development projects.

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