Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It was back in 2019 when Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz announced ErieNet, a program meant to bring broadband services to 400 miles of Erie County with an emphasis on underserved communities.
Six years and more than $30 million later, nobody has been hooked up to the service.
Erie County Legislator Lindsay Lorigo (R) is asking ErieNet for answers. She wrote a letter to the program's executive director Melissa Hartman this week, asking for details on the work that's been done so far.
Lorigo's letter asks for answers about how much of the network is currently operational, costs, negotiations with providers and details on how many miles of cable have been installed.
"There has been no updates from the director to the County Legislature," Lorigo told WBEN on Friday. "[Hartman] really doesn't have to come and talk to us, and that's part of the problem here. There's no accountability."
Lorigo notes the project was supposed to be wrapped up in 2023, but so far, just 20 of the 400 planned miles have been completed. She says the same concerns that were discussed at the start of the project are the same concerns holding it up today.
"The county does not own the telephone poles that the wire needs to be strung on. So there needs to be agreements with the companies like NYSEG, etc. that own those lines," Lorigo noted. "They don't want us to put lines on the telephone poles that they own. It's a liability for them.
"All of the problems that are happening today have been talked about for the past six years. There's no reason that they're new today, they're just the excuse today."
American Rescue Plan funds were designated for the rollout of ErieNet. Lorigo says more than $34 million in ARP funds have gone into the project, but the money would have been better spent elsewhere.
"We could have fixed roads that will never be touched otherwise because they don't qualify for state and federal grants. We could've fixed bridges... generational projects could have been done with this money," she said.
In Lorigo's opinion, ErieNet is a vanity project.
"At this point when we're bleeding money, at what point do we pull the plug?"
When asked about the project last month, Poloncarz acknowledged the slow progress of getting the network online and operational. He does say the county hopes to see crews continue work into the winter months, weather pending, with the hope of completing the project come next spring.