By Keith Whitcomb Jr.
RUTLAND HERALD
Just about all of Vermont now qualifies for a federal broadband funding program where it didn’t previously. Communications union districts, state and local governments, limited liability companies and cooperative organizations will be able to apply, among others.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) made the announcement Nov. 24 that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law would provide $1.5 billion for the ReConnect program.
According to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., much of Vermont wasn’t eligible for the program because of a USDA Rural Utilities Service loan made to Vermont Telephone Co. Inc. (VTel). Leahy stated in a release Tuesday that he was able to get the change made through his work on the Senate Appropriations Committee, of which he’s chair.
“For too many years, Vermont has been handcuffed from receiving any funds from the USDA ReConnect grant program — that is why I fought so hard to include a provision in the Fiscal Year 2021 Appropriations Act to reopen this program to Vermont,” Leahy stated in a release on Tuesday. “I am delighted to see the USDA follow through with this critical change. Closing the digital divide in Vermont, particularly in the rural communities across the state, has long been a priority of mine as a United States senator.”
He said Vermont’s economic future hinges upon reliable access to high-speed internet, since more are working from home.
“As school, work and access to health care shifted even further online, access to quality, high-speed broadband service will allow more Vermonters to learn, stay in touch with loved ones, and access essential government services from the comfort of their homes,” Leahy stated.
The state’s communications union districts, set up to increase broadband connectivity in underserved areas of the state, are interested in the program.
“We’re extremely interested in it. It’s not just a grant. There’s grants, there’s loans, there’s different tiers, if you will … and there’s also a set of scoring criteria that the USDA uses, and I know they’re using some scoring criteria for this… but yes, that would be, hopefully, somewhere in our portfolio of funds,” said Jerry Diamantides, project manager for CVFiber, on Wednesday.
CVFiber is a communications union district (CUD) serving the Barre-Montpelier area from Elmore to Roxbury.
“It’s only last week, I guess, the ReConnect program actually opened up and you can imagine all of the CUDs in Vermont and certainly the fiber providers throughout the country are looking at ways to leverage this,” said Diamantides. “It’s certainly something we’re looking at. Anytime someone is offering a grant you get folks’ attention and if you’re offering a low-interest loan you get attention too, just not as much as the grant guy.”
According to Leahy, ReConnect can be used to fund broadband projects in rural areas where 90% of households lack 100 megabit per second (Mbps) download and 20 MBps upload speeds. The USDA gives priority to places where speeds are lower than 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload.
Bill Moore, chair of the Otter Creek Communications Union District, serving towns in Rutland County, said Wednesday the group is on the verge of completing a high level engineering plan and business plan that will give it more leverage in applying to funding sources such as ReConnect.
“So having another funding source of this degree is both critical and substantially helpful because if you’re working from small grant to small grant on a multi-million dollar infrastructure project you don’t get very far very fast and it can be hard to plan,” he said. “So the ReConnect program provides an additional opportunity for funding that allows any CUD in Vermont to continue working forward and provide that resource.”
The Otter Creek CUD is working with Amanda O’Connor, community planner at the Rutland Regional Planning Commission. O’Connor said Wednesday that funds and availability of resources such as fiber and trained personnel are what the CUDs will need for their work.
“If you have funding not only can you pay for the overall scope of the project, but if you have sufficient funding, it also helps when it comes to trying to track down necessary resources to reach your end goal, which for Otter Creek, CUD ensuring that high-speed internet infrastructure exists throughout the region so any who want it can access it,” she said. “The CUD would definitely be looking at the ReConnect program as a funding opportunity, first, though, it needs to finish its high level engineering study which is going to be done in the next week or two, which is very exciting.”
While the plans aren’t quite done yet, she said it’s looking as if they will recommend that Otter Creek CUD look to partner with existing internet service providers (ISP) rather than become its own ISP, as some districts have done or considered.
keith.whitcomb @rutlandherald.com
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