Decatur County REMC, NineStar Connect sign Indiana BEAD contracts

Providers named: Decatur County REMC, NineStar Connect

Award amount: $7.1M

What this means for BEAD compliance

Decatur County REMC and NineStar Connect, as Indiana BEAD subgrantees now under executed award contracts for fiber-to-the-home deployment across their respective service territories.

Execution of the BEAD contracts triggers the 24-month construction completion clock (deployment must finish by August 2027) and activates the full suite of active-deployment obligations, including reimbursement-based disbursement procedures, quarterly address and speed-test reporting, Davis-Bacon prevailing wage compliance, Buy America requirements, and NEPA/environmental review completion prior to construction start. Both providers must now maintain cost-per-passing documentation, letters of credit, and continuous default risk monitoring for the duration of the build. Failure to meet the fixed 24-month deadline or to document matching cooperative investment properly could trigger default remediation or clawback risk under IN-FIN-003 and IN-PERF-001-2.

Deadline August 1, 2027: DCREMC and NineStar Connect must complete network construction and meet all associated reporting, environmental, and labor compliance milestones before the August 2027 completion deadline.

Analysis by BeadComply Compliance Intelligence, grounded in the BEAD requirements registry.