The South Central Broadband Commission is actively pursuing funding for a broadband project, but Thursday’s meeting scheduled for Selma City Hall failed to have a quorum and was rescheduled for April 25.

SCABC President Charlie King Jr. said Thursday that two private sources of funding for a broadband project have been found. But he said the sources couldn’t be named “until the (SCABC) board approves all of the stuff we need to approve.”

Thursday’s meeting was to be held at 11 a.m. at Selma City Hall. However, only SCABC President Charlie King Jr., Selma Mayor George Evans and SCABC Managing Director Aaron McCall were present from the board of directors.

McCall stated that he is not a voting member of the board, and that five board members were required to have a quorum.

The SCABC was originally formed to own and manage a broadband communications infrastructure designed to bridge the digital divide in South Central Alabama.

The original project was set to construct 2,200 miles of fiber-optic broadband network in eight counties including Butler, Crenshaw, Conecuh, Dallas, Escambia, Lowndes, Macon and Wilcox.

The project was to be funded by a $59 million federal grant and $27 million in matching funds.

In June of 2011, the Lowndes County Commission approved a $3.5 million bond issue to purchase the Hayneville Plaza in Hayneville for use as a hub center for the SCABC.

In October of 2012, it was confirmed that a $59 million grant to Trillion Communications from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration for the $86 million South Central Alabama Broadband Project was terminated.

Also in October of 2012, on the heels of termination of the South Central Alabama Broadband Project grant, the Lowndes County Commission voted to take possession of the Hayneville Plaza where the SCABC had it office and collected rent.

In January of this year was announced at a Lowndes County Commission meeting that SCABC is still alive, has restructured its board of directors and has found private funding for a broadband project in the same footprint as the original project.

The SCABC board of directors met in Tuskegee in February of this year in conjunction with the Alabama Conference of Black Mayors and the World Conference of Mayors and approved a joint resolution asking the federal government to reinstate the terminated broadband project grant.

They wanted the federal government to revisit its ruling on reinstating the terminated funds that had been awarded to Trillion Communication Corp and re-grant those funds to the SCABC.

A new plan announced at the time, according to McCall, was to connect 75,000 homes to the network.  He said the first phase would be a wireless phase with the same capacity as the actual fiber with speeds up to one gigabyte, and the second phase would be cable in the ground.

On Feb. 6 of this year, a lawsuit was filed by the Lowndes County Commission against the South Central Broadband (Commission). It asks that rent money collected by the SCABC is property of the Lowndes County Commission, the SCABC be stopped from expending other funds, the SCABC make a full accounting of money collected and spent and the balance of money be paid to the county commission.

The SCABC was also named in a second lawsuit filed by the commission on Feb. 25.

King said Thursday he could not comment on lawsuits. However, he said the SCABC is now seeking to do both the wireless and fiber optic project at the same time.

Also in attendance Thursday and representing the non-profit Elmore Bolling Foundation Inc. were Josephine McCall, Annie Bolling and Mary Brumby.

The Elmore Bolling Foundation promotes communitywide interest for the concerns of the disadvantaged.

“We want to see the project go through in Lowndes County,” McCall said. She said the residents of the county and children need it.