Manager of the Year Award – June 15, 2025

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BARC Connects is thrilled to continue its celebration of outstanding customer service recognition. Broadband Director Billy Reid was recently named Manager of the Year by the Bath County Chamber of Commerce.

This well-deserved recognition highlights not only his exceptional leadership but also his commitment to team success, customer satisfaction and integrity.

Throughout the year, Reid has led by example and consistently goes above and beyond to ensure that customers and their broadband experience are prioritized.

Please join us in congratulating Billy Reid and the BARC Connects team on this outstanding achievement!

Connecting Communities – June 1, 2025

Cooperatives, like BARC, operate with core principles and values.Concern for Community is the seventh Cooperative Principle and the reason why cooperatives focus on the communities we serve.

BARC members operate and work together with these same values and are shining examples of the cooperative spirit. The growing partnership between Visit Bath and the Bath County Chamber of Commerce shows that working together helps promote economic development, strengthen community identity and boost local businesses.


A UNIFIED VISION FOR GROWTH

The shared mission between the Bath County Chamber and tourism is clear: Focus on purpose. “The businesses, organizations and individuals we represent are the backbone of our community,” says Rachel Camacho, executive director at the Chamber. “I don’t take that lightly.” Camacho grew up in Bath County and, from a young age, was active in community events and theater. “Throughout those years, I was given a heightened appreciation for Bath and those who reside in it, but it also provided insight as to what businesses and residents wanted and needed,” Camacho explains. Recently, Visit Bath and the Bath County Chamber moved to a new office space, called The Hub, with hope of becoming a community hub for meetings and collaboration in Bath County. These new offices utilize the internet services of BARC Connects. “Having BARC Connects, and reliable power through BARC Electric creates a space where meetings and day-to-day office operations occur with high-speed internet connections and access for multiple users,” says Mark Shore, president and CEO of Visit Bath. Shore is no stranger to the value tourism departments provide. He has worked destination marketing for more than 30 years, most recently as the director of tourism marketing for Visit NC, North Carolina’s office of tourism. Shore came to Bath County to help with the launch of Visit Bath as a not-for-profit, under contract with Bath for the purpose of promoting tourism to the area. Visit Bath represents the belief that two separate organizations working together can offer the community better synergy.


CONNECTING AND STRENGTHENING COMMUNITIES

On May 1, collaboration and hard work brought together two BARC communities when the fourth Cedar Creek Trailhead opened on the Jackson River Trail, uniting two counties: Bath and Alleghany. Chad Williams, director at the Alleghany County Parks and Recreation, and his team spearheaded the entirety of the Jackson River Trail, beginning in Covington and now extending into Bath County today. “The trail is one of the most visited places by tourists in the Alleghany Highlands,” explains Josh Taylor, executive director at Visit Alleghany Highland. “Virginia Tourism just named it a Top 10 rail-to-trail path in Virginia.” Shore and Williams worked together to provide a safe environment. Partnering with BARC Connects, they oversaw the installation of Wi-Fi at the trailhead, allowing visitors and hikers a place to connect. Cell phone service is not available at the trailhead. According to Shore, the collaboration with BARC Connects provides more than a safety boost for the area. “Visit Bath is also able to collect data regarding who is using the trail and communicate with these guests for feedback and trail updates,” he says.


LOOKING AHEAD

As the communities served by BARC continue to grow, the integrated efforts of tourism departments and chambers of commerce working with its members will be crucial. “We proudly represent BARC within our chamber, but with all they do for us, it further proves this is a team effort,” says Camacho. BARC CEO Bill Buchanan supports these efforts by serving on the chamber’s board of directors and encouraging time for BARC staff to help in the community. “We’re not just members,” says Buchanan, “we’re building together a stronger, more connected community.”

Planned Maintenance Outage – May 22, 2025

BARC Connects will be having a planned maintenance on 5/22/2025 between 1-4:00 a.m.

The areas that will be impacted are listed below.

Win a Roku Giveaway!

Download the BARC Connects app and you are automatically entered to WIN a Roku!

Download the app here for your chance to win: https://www.barcconnects.net/smart-home-solutions/

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The BARC Connects app allows for better control over your network. Change your Wi-Fi settings, check devices on your network, and now, with our FREE ProtectIQ service, you can see web intrusions on your phone. Customers with the app are already eligible to win. The Roku giveaway will run through April and the winner will be announced on Facebook in May. Don’t miss out!

ONLINE PIECE OF MIND WITH PROTECTIQ NETWORK SECURITY

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BARC Connects is working hard behind the scenes to stop unwanted intrusions and web threats. This month, BARC Connects newly enabled security feature, ProtectIQ, has blocked 43,000 web threats from our customers.

Email accounts are often the pathway that can provide a link to all your other valuable accounts, as well as a record of your communication with friends, families, and colleagues. As central hubs to other online services, hackers may try to obtain your passwords through social engineering scams to jump to other services. If an email account acts as a singular hub for your other services, a single compromise can snowball into the hijack of many accounts and services.

With ProtectIQ™, you will receive the internet security you need. ProtectIQ is a network-level security application that works quietly in the background and proactively keeps malicious websites, viruses, and intrusion away from your home 24×7.

Protect your email account with a strong password and encrypt your emails where possible. If your password is still somehow leaked or otherwise become known to an attacker, having two-factor authentication enabled may help to dramatically prevent improper access.

To learn more about protecting your accounts, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L69oT8ahh8U&t=1s

Town Hall: Spring Valley and Buffalo Creek

A town hall meeting will be held for customers in the Spring Valley and Buffalo Creek areas on Monday, March 3rd at 6pm. Bring your questions regarding BARC Connects. We look forward to seeing you there!

Location:

Lexington Moose Lodge

1465 Thorn Hill Rd

Lexington VA 24450

PRE-REGISTER:

SVBC@barcelectric.com

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Lobby Closed Feb. 11 and Feb. 12, 2025

BARC Connects customers: We will be closing early today due to the inclement weather. Fiber techs are still finishing up new installs and upgrades but will be available should a fiber outage occur. Please call 1-800-846-2272, option 2 for trouble tickets.

For payments: Please utilize our SmartHub portal or SmartHub app for easy payments.

Outage Update – February 6, 2025

Update: As of 6 a.m. on February 7, all fiber outages should be restored at this time.

Update on the cut fiber at 7:30 p.m.:

The fiber construction crew has installed the new fiber cable, and the splicing crews have begun re-splicing the fiber. We expect to see customers beginning to come back in service starting around 8:30pm.

Because there are 144 fibers that will be spliced on two ends, splicing will continue until around midnight when all customers should be back in service. We have two splicing crews working in tandem to bring customers back to service as quickly as possible.

Once again, thank you for your patience and we apologize for any inconvenience.

BARC Connects: A fiber line was cut and is impacting customers in the city of Lexington. The provider is working to resolve this issue.

Lobby Closed – January 6, 2025

Please note, due to the winter storm, our lobby will be closed on January 6, 2025. We have several options for payment available here: https://www.barcconnects.net/paymybill/

December Fiber Construction Update – December 23, 2024

Augusta County and Middlebrook Road

Your area is now eligible to sign up for service!

Please check your address with Customer Service at 800-846-2272. Sign-up by website coming soon.

Service is subject to availability. Aid in construction costs will vary.

We are providing detailed area maps below to see if your area is eligible: