Tag Archives: ARP funds

Goodhue County to invest ARPA funds on broadband in Welch Township

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The Republican Eagle reports…

The Goodhue County Board of Commissioners approved the use of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for broadband and website development.

During the July 18 meeting, the commissioners heard from Outreach and Communications Specialist Briggs Tople about how the website needed improvements to comply with ADA.

“Our website is our biggest communication tool, it receives roughly 400,000 hits per year and it is an extremely important tool for us,” Tople said. “As of right now it has a couple of faults, some of which staff can control, some we are going to need additional resources to address.”

More on the broadband…

During the same meeting the board approved a proposal for project from Southeast MN Wifi LLC in Welch Township.

“The project would serve 18 unserved passings, and they are requesting $112,138 from the county, or 48% of the total project which is $236,080,” County Finance Director Brian Anderson said.

According to agenda materials, Goodhue County Board had earmarked $1,600,000 for the expansion of broadband service to unserved or underserved communities within the county.

“The funds initially came from the Federal program American Rescue Plan Act and Goodhue County established this Broadband program to be used by established companies through the use of qualifying grants,” the agenda packet stated. “At this time four grants have been approved for a total amount of $986,329, leaving $613,671 remaining to be distributed.”

The board unanimously approved the proposal for the broadband project in Welch Township.

Benton County Commissioner willing to invest $1.5 million in broadband project with Benton Communications

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KSNI radio reports…

Benton County residents will get high-speed fiber broadband internet after the Board of Commissioners approved an agreement with Benton Communications.

The county awarded the company $1.5 million to 483 rural addresses in unserved and underserved areas north of Highway 23. Packages will be offered in speeds ranging from 100Mbps upload/download up to one gigabyte upload/download.

The money comes from Benton Communications, the State of Minnesota Border to Border grants, and Benton County contributing $1.1 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds.

Benton Communications expects to begin work on laying the 148 miles of fiber in the fall and complete the project by June 2025.

Residents interested in broadband service should contact Benton Communications General Manager Cheryl Scapanski at 320-393-1112.

However, I think that the announcement of service may be premature. The agenda from the last Benton County Commissioners meeting (Feb 21 2023) indicates that the county discussed the opportunity to invest and support Benton County’s Border to Border proposal but they need to apply before knowing that it will happen. But fingers crossed for Benton County!

Fairmount County to invest $1.5M in ARPA funds in broadband – looking for proposals

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The Fairmont Sentinel reports…

The Martin County Board of Commissioners has authorized a historic $1.5 million of funding for rural broadband development assistance. The partnership program would help cover up to half the cost of expanding fiber internet to people’s homes in areas currently underserved by existing internet infrastructure and is expected to generate at least $3 million worth of infrastructure improvements.

While larger cities in Martin County such as Fairmont, Sherburn and Truman already have easy access to broadband, a diminishing economy of scale means speeds quickly decrease for people living outside of these areas. In rural areas the increased distance between homes means fewer customers per mile of fiber cable installation and higher costs installation for internet service providers. Subsidizing rural broadband development can help reduce inequalities in access.

They are using ARPA funds…

The program is financed by federal funds disbursed as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) passed in 2021 and would help pay for the last mile of fiber installation to the premises capable of reaching download and upload speeds of at least 500 megabytes per second. In order to qualify a project must serve an area which is classified as underserved or unserved by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development’s Office of Broadband. These areas have download speeds that don’t exceed 25 megabits per second and upload speeds that don’t exceed three megabits per second.

They are looking for proposals to get the work done…

Program funds will be dispersed in the form of a competitive grant application wherein projects are scored on a variety of criteria. The application provided by the county emphasizes providing the largest degree of improvement to the largest number of people as well as the project’s readiness and sustainability. Community participation, economic impact, broadband adoption assistance and the percent of public funds used in the project are scoring criteria on the application but are weighted to a less extent.

Applications for the program opened on Feb. 21 and applications must be submitted ahead of March 31 in order to be included in the initial review. After the initial review has been concluded the county will continue to disburse funds until all $1.5 million has been depleted. Because the county has yet to review project proposals estimates regarding the number of households the program will serve and the bandwidth improvements it would provide are currently unavailable.

Martin County Commissioners are looking at better broadband options

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The Fairmont Sentinel reports…

During its meeting on Jan. 17, the Martin County Board of Commissioners moved forward with plans for a grant program to help fund broadband development in rural Martin County. The program would use federal funding from the American Rescue Plan, passed in 2021, to help cover the cost of last mile broadband installation in parts of the county that are currently unserved or underserved by existing broadband infrastructure.

“Our goal is to make sure every household in Martin County has access to high speed broadband,” said Joshua Shuetz, a community and business development specialist who works with the county.

In the current form of the proposal the county would commit $1.5 million to cover up to half the cost of broadband improvements in parts of the county where wired download speeds are less than 100 mbps and upload speeds are less than 20 mbps. Because the program would cover up to half the cost of broadband projects, it’s expected to stimulate at least twice this amount in broadband improvements.

The goal is to serve everyone, not just in towns…

While most cities in Martin County such as Fairmont, Sherburn, Granada, Truman and Trimont already have broadband, access rapidly drops off outside of city limits. Many people may have an internet cable that runs near their homes but have not yet been connected to their service providers.

“There might be someone out in the country who has fiber running close to them but it could be as little as a half mile or a quarter mile and it’s not to their house so they got nothing. Last mile tends to be the most expensive so that’s why we’re so laser focused on that,” said Schuetz.

While a future state or federal program could provide more assistance to the remainder of the county Schuetz highlighted the importance of local entities taking the first steps towards improving broadband access.

Currently Martin County ranks 71 (our of 87) for broadband access in Minnesota. This step might help them climb the ranks, especially if they are ready to move forward even before the upcoming federal funds are available.

Nobles County invests $4 million in broadband with local and ARPA funds

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The Worthington Globe reports…

The Nobles County Board of Commissioners boosted the local “Fiber to Home” broadband effort by reaffirming its $2 million commitment and kicking in another $2 million after a grant application for USDA funding was denied.

“We’re dumbfounded,” said Mark Loosbrock, secretary/treasurer of Lismore Cooperative Telephone Company, which spearheaded the project. “They had maps that our engineers, that nobody had. That’s why that money got denied.”

Loosbrock explained that in applying for the grant, engineers and consultants used maps to assess the area already served by broadband, and given that information had believed they would be given a high number of points on the grant’s scoring rubric. However, those assessing the application had maps not available to the co-op’s engineers, Loosbrock said.

However, the co-op was told it could apply for a grant in the next round of funding — which has a November deadline, driving co-op representatives to return to the county board to ask for direction and potentially, enough local matching funding to reapply for the grant.

They decided to double down on their investment…

In the end, commissioners reaffirmed their prior commitment of $2 million, once again contingent on the grant being accepted, and then voted to put $1 million of its federal American Rescue Plan Act money to the project.

Following those board actions, Commissioner Justin Ahlers proposed directing $250,000 of the county’s wind energy production money per year for four years toward the project — after calling Metz back to the commission to answer a few questions about the wind production funds. Metz said he anticipated better wind energy production gains this year, and then returned to his place in the audience.

Ahlers’ motion passed 3-0.

County Administrator Bruce Heitkamp praised the broadband initiative for its economic development potential, and Ahlers emphasized how important it is for education.

 

Sherburne County to invest $1.5 million from ARPA in better broadband

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Patriot News reports...

Sherburne County Commissioners approved a $1.5 million grant program to expand broadband service to unserved and underserved areas of the county.

The money will help bring reliable, affordable high-speed internet to more Sherburne County households and businesses, with the funds coming from the America Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

The grants will be awarded to service providers for eligible projects that provide service designed to reliably meet or exceed a symmetrical 100 Mbps download and upload speeds or, where symmetrical 100 Mbps speeds are not practicable, 100 Mbps download and at least 20 Mbps upload speeds.

They are looking for provider partners…

Sherburne County will accept applications for Broadband Access Grants through Sept. 30, 2022. Interested parties can find a link to the application at the county’s website: http://www.co.sherburne.mn.us.

OPPORTUNITY: Sherburne County to invest $1.5 million ARPA funds into better broadband

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KSNI radio St Cloud reports…

A $1.5 million grant program for broadband service expansion in Sherburne County has been approved.

Sherburne County Commissioners approved the money, which will come from American Rescue Plan Act Funding, to help bring affordable, reliable, high-speed internet service to more homes and businesses. The grants will be awarded for eligible projects that meet or exceed certain upload and download speeds.

“Investing in broadband is a County Board priority that creates opportunities to boost growth and prosperity throughout Sherburne County,” said Board Chair Barbara Burandt.

Applications will be accepted through September 30th.

Learn more by clicking here.

Mower County looking at using RODF, ARPA and Border to Border funds to improve broadband access

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Gov Tech reports on Mower County’s plans for better broadband. It reads like alphabet soup with a mix of RDOF, ARPA and BTB funds, which is both of sign of the complexity and availability of various funding sources right now. If you’re community needs better access and they aren’t looking into options like these you should ask why. There’s a lot of money being invested right now but that won’t go on forever…

During the Mower County Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, County Administrator Trish Harren laid out where the county currently stands in getting better broadband Internet coverage for the county.

As of last year, nearly 85% of the county’s residents had access to broadband, but that access is mostly condensed to high population densities, which includes Austin and small town areas.

More detail…

While 85% of the population is served, however, nearly 90% of the geographical makeup of Mower remains underserved.
That leaves large swaths of the county with either spotty coverage or no coverage at all.
However, a pair of funding opportunities are allowing the county some flexibility in terms of filling out that coverage.
Through the Federal Communications Commission’s based Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) and Minnesota Border to Border (BTB) grants, Mower County is hoping to spread that access even further.
The RDOF uses an auction format where the winner of a reverse bidding process agrees to build out for a certain amount of money. In Mower County, LTD Communications was a top 10 bidder at $1.3 billion. They are also the largest provider in this area. Charter Communications had a bid of $1.2 billion
BTB runs through a grant process with a well of $95 billion to draw from in grant money. Grant applications for that program are due by Aug. 4.

And info on specific, proposed projects…

The northeast LTD project would come in at an estimated $2.45 million and would lay 82 miles of fiber over an area north of Grand Meadow and stretching east to parts surrounding Racine. It would also include 376 passings, or physical locations where residences and businesses would hardwire into the fiber network.
The southwest project would lay 138 miles of fiber with 209 passings at an estimated cost of $3.5 million over an area south of Austin and stretching east to the Rose Creek area.
Charter will also be part of this BTB project, serving an area to the south of Austin where LTD doesn’t serve. Its side of the overall project will include 99 passings coming in at around $677,000.
In order to form a partnership with projects coming out of the RDOF and the BTB programs, the county has agreed to set aside $750,000 in ARPA money of which $585,000 will be committed to the LTD projects and $99,000 will be committed to the Charter project.

Thomson Township pledge ARPA funds for Border to Border applications in Carlton County

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The Pine Journal reports…

Thomson Township supervisors made a resolution of support and pledged $187,500 to two broadband initiatives in the area during a meeting Thursday, July 21.

The two initiatives include a Mediacom broadband expansion and joining the Cloquet broadband project, both of which are applying to secure state funding for their projects.

Leah Pykkonen, the township’s deputy clerk, presented the Mediacom proposal to the board and explained its benefits.

According to Pykkonen, the project would cover 420 homes in the northern part of the township and connect to the existing infrastructure.

They will be using ARPA funds…

Town Clerk Rhonda Peleski said the township has $565,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds, and some of it could be allocated for broadband expansion. …

After some deliberation between board members, they agreed on pledging $150,000 to the Mediacom project.

The Cloquet broadband project, which the supervisors also pledged support to, has a smaller scope for the township as it would only cover 92 homes.

With that in mind, Paulson said it would make sense to give the project 25% of the funding, $37,500, as it would be closer to an equal share compared to the number of homes covered with the Mediacom project.

Sherburne County and Arvig partner of Border to Border grant applications for Haven Twp., Clear Lake Twp. and Elk River.

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Patriot News reports…

After 15-minute discussion last Tuesday, the Sherburne County Board Tuesday approved three grant applications by Arvig for broadband projects in Haven Twp., Clear Lake Twp. and Elk River.

Arvig has requested to partner with Sherburne County on 2022 State of MN Border to Border Broadband program applications. 

The grants are $666,406 for the Haven Twp. project, $192,477 in Clear Lake Twp. and $217,060.50 in Elk River. The board passed a resolution of commitment of 30% contribution for each project. Should Arvig be awarded any of the grants by the state, the county’s contribution (using ARPA funds) would be $499,804.50 for Haven Twp., $144,357.75 for Clear Lake Twp. and $162,795.38 for Elk River.

The projects would serve a total of 254 homes for the three projects combined.

The board tabled its decision on proposed broadband projects in Santiago Twp. and Becker Twp. until August. 

Otter Tail County invests $2.8 million of ARPA funds on broadband

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Perham Focus reports…

Otter Tail County commissioners have pinpointed how to spend about half of the $11.4 million allocated to the county via the American Rescue Plan Act.

During the County Board meeting on Tuesday, July 12 resolutions on fund allocations were reviewed. The funds come with stipulations, such as to decrease the spread of the virus, replace lost revenue for governmental entities, economic stabilization and to address public health challenges.

Here’s the broadband related investment…

  • $2.8 million (or technology) will go to technological infrastructure, such as broadband access expansion. It was noted the improvements in the county would also utilize state and federal sources.
  • $150,000 was earmarked for funding a jobs portal for three years. The strategy supports efforts to attract new employees and by doing so support businesses in the county that provide a living wage.

Arvig and Redwood County seek a Border to Border grant for better broadband

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Telecompetitor reports…

Regional provider Arvig and Redwood County, Minnesota, have agreed to work together on a $4.4 million public-private partnership to bring fiber to eight cities in the county.

The linchpin of the project will be approval of an application for a $1.3 million grant that Arvig and the county will make to the State of Minnesota Border to Border Broadband Development Grant program.

That funding would be supplemented by $1.2 million from Arvig and a local match of $1.9 million from the county. The county’s contribution will be money secured through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

If the Border to Border grant is received, the project will bring 1 Gbps connectivity to residential customers and 10 Gbps service to businesses in Belview, Clements, Morgan, Seaforth, Vesta, Wabasso, Walnut Grove and Wanda. More than 1,870 structures will be served, which represents about 30% of Redwood County residents.

If it goes forward, the Arvig public-private partnership project would be completed in June, 2025.

Treasury Announces Four Capital Projects Fund Awards – including $68.4 million in MN

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The US Department of the Treasury reports…

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the approval of an additional group of four states under the American Rescue Plan’s Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund (CPF): Kansas, Maine, Maryland, and Minnesota. The CPF provides $10 billion to states, territories, freely associated states, and Tribal governments to fund critical capital projects that enable work, education, and health monitoring in response to the public health emergency. A key priority of the program is to make funding available for reliable, affordable broadband infrastructure and other digital connectivity technology projects. In addition to the $10 billion provided by the CPF, many governments are using a portion of their State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) toward meeting the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of connecting every American household to affordable, reliable high-speed internet. Through these two programs, the American Rescue Plan is supplying considerable federal broadband funding and laying the groundwork for future funding provided in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Here’s info on the award in Minnesota…

Minnesota, approved for $68.4 million (representing 38% of its available CPF funding), estimates it will connect 23,517 homes and businesses by using the funds for its Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant Program, a competitive grant program designed to provide financial resources for new and existing ISPs to invest in building broadband infrastructure in areas of the state that currently lack high-speed internet.

St Louis County (MN) has ARPA funds available for broadband

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Business North reports…

Meanwhile, St. Louis County still has more than $610,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to distribute for eligible broadband projects. This includes $175,000 for broadband project planning costs, and $438,000 for project implementation costs. These funds are intended to increase broadband access in unserved and underserved communities in St. Louis County. More information on use of these funds can be found online at stlouiscountymn.gov/broadband. Any local jurisdiction interested in applying for these funds should contact Brad Gustafson, St. Louis County Community Development Manager, at gustafsonb@stlouiscountymn.gov or 218-742-9563.

The article also mentions the Border to Border grants, which are available to the entire state.

Scandia MN gets ARPA and RDOF funds for better broadband (Washington County)

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The County Messenger reports…

Last month, MidCo started work on the city’s 2022 internet expansion program. In 2020, the city of Scandia and the Internet Action Committee (IAC), established the expansion program as part of a five-year plan to increase internet speeds and accessibility within Scandia.

The goal is to add an average of 200 homes per year for the next five years (2020-2024). The city has been working with county, state and federal resources to secure funding for the project. “The city’s goal is to provide high-speed internet coverage to citizens of Scandia quickly at the lowest cost to the city by leveraging grants,” said City Administrator for Scandia, Ken Cammelliri.

Earlier this spring, the City of Scandia and MidCo were awarded a $100,000 grant through Washington County. Washington County was allocating $2 million for investments in broadband seeking request for funds. Cities, Townships and broadband providers were eligible to apply. Eligible project areas include any unserved or underserved area within Washington County. The city of Scandia was one of the first to apply for the grant. Funds for the grant come from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

“For purposes of the ARPA broadband grant, an unserved or underserved area includes households or businesses that are not currently serviced by a wireline connection that delivers reliable broadband service with a minimum speeds of 100Mbps download and 20Mbps upload,” explained Jan Lucke, Deputy County Administrator for Washington County.

In addition to the grant, MidCo also received dollars from the Federal Rural Digital Opportunities Fund (RDOF.)

More detail…

“The build-out for 2022 includes 48 houses that will be covered by RDOF. The project area that’s involved with the grant money from Washington County is what we refer to as Oak Hill Rd North,” he explained.

“The remaining 114 homes for this year are to be covered by the City of Scandia and Washington County grants.”

The funds will help offset the costs for the 2022 construction season. The cost to the city will be $219,000. The cost to MidCo will be $259,736.