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Rockbridge County and BARC Electric Cooperative were notified last week that a $4.4 million USDA Rural Development grant has been awarded to help fund the extension of broadband high-speed internet service to underserved parts of the county.
The award comes on top of $2.3 million in grant funding awarded in July through the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative to the county, BARC and Brightspeed for the purpose of extending broadband service to remote parts of the county.
The most recent grant targets a part of the county – the Collierstown/Effinger area – that would also be served by a portion of the earlier grant funding. County officials and service providers are trying to sort out how to address the overlap in areas targeted by separate grant funding sources.
“I am trying to work though the details with [the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development] as to how to reconcile the double awards,” said Rockbridge County Administrator Spencer Suter on Monday. “ … I am in discussion with all three parties (BARC, Brightspeed and VATI) to determine how to proceed.”
The grant awarded last week, according to a press release from Rural Development, would be used “to install a fiber-tothe- premises system that will benefit 816 residents and four businesses in Rockbridge County. Subscribers will get up to 1000 megabits per second of symmetrical service, and two computer workstations will be installed in the offices of the Lake Robertson recreation area to make free internet available to citizens for at least two years.”
The funding, provided through the Community Connect Program, “helps bring high-speed internet service to areas where it is least likely to be commercially available but can make a tremendous difference in quality of life. The projects funded by these grants help rural residents tap into the enormous potential of the internet for individual and community development. Award recipients also use a portion of these funds to equip community centers to provide free high-speed internet service for a minimum of two years.”
As for the VATI grant funding of $2.3 million that was awarded in July, the county announced then that it would be providing $2,629,529 from its American Rescue Plan funds and the county’s broadband partners would be contributing $3,964,953 to make a total of $8.7 million available to extend high-speed internet to nearly 2,000 locations in parts of the county.
