The Harrison County Board of Commissioners received its first high-speed fiber Internet monthly update from project manager George Ethridge Monday morning.

A project kick-off meeting took place April 12, he said, with the contract between the Harrison County Community Foundation Real Estate Supporting Organization and Mainstream Fiber Networks reviewed for clarity.

The project scope, time line and expectations were set, with easement challenges, route selection and task assignments identified and strategies discussed to meet those challenges.

"It's not going to be an easy one," Ethridge said of project completion.

One major problem that arose came from a memo from the Indiana Department of Transportation which said it had placed a moratorium on new easements along state highways. So, the group had to modify the fiber-cable route to avoid state roads where possible, Ethridge said.

"We found another route that was actually better for us than the original route that was going to use a lot of state easements," he said.

In the meantime, he said, the Chamber of Commerce lobbied state representatives, senators, INDOT officials and Gov. Eric Holcomb to get the moratorium lifted.

About a week later, the moratorium was lifted.

"We were successful getting representatives involved and enough input to INDOT to have that lifted," Ethridge said.

The next step will be to call for bids for local equipment suppliers and labor pools.

"Responses will be evaluated and vendors selected in May," Ethridge said.

The county approved $2 million for the project last month, joining with the Foundation ($3 million investment) and Mainstream ($10 million) to help bring high-speed Internet availability to a majority of Harrison County residents.

The phase II proposal (phase one was a government facilities-focused project in Corydon) will build a main line of 115 miles of fiber-optic backbone. From that main line, a secondary build will occur, adjoining residents up to one mile in either direction.

The agreement between the Foundation and Mainstream gives a time line of 16 months to have the backbone infrastructure in place.

A $5 service fee for customers will begin the process of paying back the HCCF's expenses and, eventually, the county's $2 million.

Commissioner Kenny Saulman urged residents to visit msfiber.servicezones.net/harrison to sign up to show interest or to start a contract for service.

Mainstream will provide service to the areas showing the most interest first.

Notice will be sent to all clients in a service area who have signed up when a zone is ready.

Residential service will come in three levels and prices ranges: $59.95 per month, $79.95 and $99.95, depending on megabytes per second download and upload speed (25/10, 50/20 or 100/30, respectively).

The installation fee for each customer will be $450.

Each customer will receive a month of free service for each year of contracted service. Mainstream also will offer affordable pricing for poverty-level clients (24-month period to pay $450 install fee and 80 percent of the above monthly rates).

Mainstream also offers small-business packages with phone lines.