2025 Ohio Revised Code
Title 1 | State Government
Chapter 191 | Broadband Pole Replacement and Undergrounding
Section 191.21 | Costs Eligible for Reimbursement; Records of Costs Reimbursed by Other Grants.

Effective: March 20, 2025

Latest Legislation: House Bill 308 - 135th General Assembly

If the broadband expansion program authority approves an application under the Ohio broadband pole replacement and undergrounding program, the following costs are eligible for reimbursement under the program:

(A) Actual and reasonable costs to perform a pole replacement or mid-span pole installation, including the amount of any expenditures to remove and dispose of an existing utility pole, purchase and install a replacement utility pole, and transfer any existing facilities to the new pole;

(B) Actual and reasonable undergrounding costs, including the costs to dig a trench, perform directional boring, install conduit, and seal the trench, if the undergrounding is one of the following:

(1) Required by law, regulation, or local ordinance;

(2) More economical than the cost of performing a pole replacement;

(3) Needed because the process for obtaining access to poles is causing, or is reasonably anticipated to cause, a delay that will impact the ability of the applicant to meet deadlines required by an agreement or terms of support to provide qualifying broadband service to an address within an unserved area.

(C)(1) Costs of deploying qualifying broadband service for which the applicant is entitled to obtain full reimbursement from another governmental entity are not eligible for reimbursement under the program, except as provided in division (C)(2) of this section.

(2) If an applicant's costs for deploying such service are reimbursed in part by a governmental entity, the applicant may apply for and obtain reimbursement under the program for the portion of the eligible costs for which the applicant was not reimbursed.

(D) For applicants that obtain broadband grant funding from sources other than reimbursements under the program, the authority may require the applicants to maintain accounting records sufficient to demonstrate that the other grant funds do not fully reimburse the same costs as those reimbursed under the program.

Last updated January 28, 2025 at 4:22 PM