MANSFIELD — Charter Communications is officially on the final ARPA countdown clock.
At this point, no overtime is likely.
The company was officially awarded a $2 million contract in May 2023 by the Richland County Board of Commissioners, using federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to expand broadband internet access to unserved and underserved portions of the county.
But any work funded by ARPA money must be complete by the end of 2026 under federal guidelines established in March 2021 when the $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill was approved “to help the country recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
County commissioners allocated more than $23 million in ARPA funds for various projects, including a $4.4 million wastewater sewer project in Bellville and as part of $5.3 million in courthouse renovations and improvements.
All of the projects had to be approved by the end of 2024.
Commissioners, who met Tuesday for the first time in 2026, admitted there is still much work to be on the broadband program that will help establish 748 new, “last-mile” connections in the northern part of the county.
The award was part of an overall $8.1 million project that will bring broadband access to 748 addresses that otherwise would have no connection, local officials have said.
The project is being done in conjunction with the Ohio Residential Broadband Expansion Grant Program and Charter Communications, which owns the Spectrum-brand internet service.
The state is providing a $2.1 million grant and Charter Communications is accounting for the remaining $4 million, including $2 million it considers to be an “in-kind donation.”
Commissioners tentatively agreed to participate in the project with ARPA funds during a meeting in November 2021.
“We were in communication with Charter just last week regarding this,” Commissioner Tony Vero said. “Charter continues to represent that they’re on track and are going to get it done.
“We constantly remind Charter in a very friendly and professional way that we need to get this project done by year’s end and they assure us that it will be. So we continue to monitor that,” Vero said.
County administrator Andrew Keller said Charter can “drawdown” on 10 percent of the $2 million in funding as they reach “10 percent benchmarks.”
“I believe we’ve expended $200,000 so far, that’s 10%, so we have a long way to go,” Keller said.
According to Keller, the county is “actively monitoring all of the outstanding projects,” including the Bellville sewer project, which he said he will be complete in the first half of this year.
“They are wrapping up our courthouse construction … the ARPA-funded projects. The Broadband Ohio (project) is one Commissioner Vero and I have been paying particular attention to,” he said.
“I think there’s always a concern when there’s a significant amount of taxpayer money appropriated to a project. Certainly, we want to safeguard the taxpayers’ money. Conversely, we have no reason to doubt what Charter is telling us.”
Keller said he hasn’t seen an indication Congress plans to extend the federal project completion deadline.
“It’s not out of the question, but we’re planning as if it won’t be extended,” said Keller, an attorney, adding the county could pursue legal or administrative procedures for any projects not completed by the end of 2026.
“If there are any party contractors or projects, we will have to deal with those on a case-by-case basis. But what we do know is the expenditure deadline of (Dec. 31, 2026) is a strict deadline as of now.”
Also at the meeting on Tuesday, the three-member board elected Commissioner Cliff Mears as the board chairman for 2026 and Commissioner Darrell Banks as the board’s vice chairman.
