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Former director Hill also resigned from his company

(Oct. 5, 2017) Former Ocean Pines Association Director Brett Hill, who resigned on Sept. 15, also has resigned as CEO of FTS Fiber.
FTS Marketing Manager Blake Hargest confirmed Hill resigned last month, but declined to give a specific date.
“We’re not going to get into specifics of that,” she said.
She said Adam Noll, formerly the company’s chief financial officer, assumed the role of CEO and president.
“I think FTS is going to move forward,” she said. “We’ve got a great new CEO/president who has stepped in and he’s been with the company for a while.
“We’re just positively moving forward and going through a little bit of a reorganizing,” Hargest added.
Hill was elected to the board in Aug. 2016 and served as the interim general manager of the association for just over a year. John Bailey took over as general manager on Sept. 11.
Hill’s departure from the company isn’t the only issue before FTS. Kenneth Lawhorn, a senior advisor to FTS, filed a lawsuit against Hill, alleging he did not pay back the balance of an $80,000 loan.
Lawhorn addressed the Ocean Pines Association Board last December on behalf of Hill and FTS to ask for an easement to install fiber optic internet infrastructure.
FTS had a preliminary agreement to install infrastructure in Queen Anne’s County, but that will no longer occur, according to a county news release dated Sept. 28.
“Queen Anne’s County will no longer pursue contract negotiations with Broadband firm FTS Fiber,” the release stated. “During the September 26 Commissioners’ Meeting, the board signed a letter to the firm terminating negotiations for the firm to bring Broadband to Queen Anne’s County.”
A notification letter stated, “While we understand that FTS is still pursuing funding for this and other projects, we feel that it is in both parties, best interest to terminate this project and our involvement with FTS now to avoid further project delays. We wish you and FTS the best of luck as you restructure and move forward.”
County Commissioner Mark Anderson added, in the release, “FTS said they could not provide a performance bond. The county commissioners made this tentative agreement conditioned on FTS providing other security for the county’s six- to eight-million-dollar investment. FTS was unable to provide this security. The county commissioners acted to disengage further discussions with FTS so as to move on with exploring opportunities to provide this service.”
Hill did not return calls for comment.