After a unanimous vote Monday night, Franklin City Commission expects it will begin construction on a fiber optic loop that wil ml ring the city by March or April.

“They authorized me to negotiate with BGMU for the service and with WRECC and the EPB for the use of their poles,” said Franklin Mayor Jim Brown.

The commission gave the OK for the project with the expected cost of about $2 million.

“They also authorized me to apply for grants and look for various other funding sources to defray the cost of the project,” Brown said.

The city will reimburse the Franklin Electric Plant Board for some preliminary work it has done on the project, including hiring a consultant, Fiber Planners, from North Carolina.

“I think they are the ones that worked with BGMU (which will supply the fiber service to Franklin),” Brown said. “I am going to meet with them on Thursday and we are going to see if we can pick up where they left off.”

The city took on the project after the EPB ran into road blocks about using existing revenue for the project, he said.

Now the city has established a fiber optic department in its accounting.

Brown said he expects they will build the loop a size that might seem a little big at first, “with growth in mind.”

Once it gets up and running, Brown said the fiber optic loop will be a key component in economic development, something which the commission recognized.

In other matters, the commission is expected to begin next week culling over the more than 20 applications it received for the city manager’s post.

“We want to take our time with this and get someone who really closely mirrors Bob Higgins - that was an ideal relationship,” Brown said.

Higgins had engineering credentials and was able to tackle many of the city’s engineering-related issues.