March-2024 Cooperative Living-SVEC - 13

COOPERATIVE FOCUS
⊲ REVITALIZING SOUTHERN VIRGINIA ⊲ HELPING CREATE JOBS AND INVESTMENTS
MONEY TALKS
ODEC's then-CEO Jack Reasor
" We put in infrastructure
that makes a huge
diff erence in the way
people live, work and
play in southern Virginia. "
- Tad Deriso
was on board with the idea of creating
an independently operated wholesale
telecommunications company. So, in
2001, ODEC hired Deriso, who was
director of client services with CHR
Solutions at the time.
" I had been consulting with
rural telephone cooperatives, highereducation
establishments, rural utilities,
$16.4 million federal grant from the
National Telecommunications and
Information Administration to expand
its middle-mile fi ber infrastructure
across 12 additional localities in
Southside Virginia.
But through all the success, Deriso
hasn't lost sight of the hard work it
took to get the company off the ground.
Nor has he forgotten the reason for
its inception: revitalizing southern
Virginia and helping to create jobs and
investments.
He credits David Hudgins, former
director of economic development for
Old Dominion Electric Cooperative,
as " the guy who made it all happen. "
For his part, Hudgins says,
" Somebody had to do something. "
ON A MISSION
It was in 1997 that Hudgins says
he fi rst had a " realization " that rural
Virginia was " winding down. " A wave
of layoff s had recently swept through
the state and it had many concerned
about the future of southern Virginia.
In his role as director of economic
development for the generation and
co-opliving.com
transmission cooperative headquartered
in Glen Allen, Va., Hudgins knew the
battered economy would ultimately
impact ODEC's members, which
included - at the time - 12 of
Virginia's electric cooperatives. A large
majority of its member cooperatives
serve residents in rural areas, so a hit to
rural economies was a hit to ODEC's
member cooperatives.
" Something had to happen
to give businesses the ability to
compete in the struggling economy, "
Hudgins remembers. " We needed
to do something to create jobs and
investments. And the solution was to
bridge the digital divide in southern
Virginia with high-speed broadband. "
As Hudgins recounts what occurred
between 1997 and 2004 when MidAtlantic
Broadband Cooperative was
born, he repeatedly uses the expression,
" long story short. "
But there was nothing " short " -
or easy - about the work it took to take
on such an immense forward-thinking
project. Aſt er all, as Hudgins says
playfully, " Th is was before broadband
was cool. "
government entities, etc., all around
the country - so I was used to that
environment. But when we worked
with cooperatives, what really stuck
out to me was the seventh cooperative
principle - Concern for Community.
And I recognized that was the driver
for ODEC, " Deriso recalls.
Hudgins explains, " We needed
$250,000 in seed money to get this
thing going. " ODEC's board of directors
approved appropriation of the funds
toward the creation of Mid-Atlantic
Broadband Cooperative. " Without them
approving that $250,000, it wouldn't
have happened, " Hudgins says.
In 2004, Mid-Atlantic Broadband
Cooperative, Inc., was founded under
the cooperative business model -
the fi rst step to solving the rural
telecommunications infrastructure
challenge.
" Th is is what cooperatives do. We fi ll
a void leſt by these big utility incumbents
- which is exactly what we did in
the 1930s when cooperatives banded
together to bring electricity to unserved
rural areas. If it weren't for the co-op
system, it wouldn't have happened until
much, much later, " says Hudgins.
What followed was a whirlwind of
work for Deriso and Hudgins. " David
and I traveled from Richmond to
Washington, D.C., to the Eastern Shore
to the Cumberland Gap trying to get this
(continued on page 12)
March 2024 * Cooperative Living * 11
PHOTO BY STEVE EXUM
http://www.co-opliving.com
March-2024 Cooperative Living-SVEC

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