Local broadband network gets huge funding boost
Utility lines along the edge of a field off Cox District Road in Woodstock, Vt. (Gareth Henderson Photo)
A local organization that’s been growing its broadband network in central Vermont for over a decade is getting a major funding boost to help its expansion.
ECFiber, a municipal organization operating in east-central Vermont, has secured $11.8 million in funding. That number includes $9 million from municipal bonds and $2.8 million in grant money through the Vermont Community Broadband Board. The majority of the bond money will fund construction of lines in Norwich, Woodstock, Wilder, White River Junction and Quechee, according to an ECFiber press release on Wednesday. Funding from the statewide Broadband Board will pay for expanding ECFiber’s network into eight new towns, which are Topsham, Newbury, Washington, Corinth, Bradford, West Fairlee, Fairlee, and Windsor.
Formed in 2008, ECFiber is a Vermont municipality akin to a water district and consists of 31 member towns, according to the funding announcement. Officially known as the East Central Vermont Telecommunications District, it has no taxing powers and has — since its transition to a communications union district in 2016 — been funded mainly by municipal bonds backed by customer payments for service, ECFiber officials said in the statement.
“We are the model for how to make world-class broadband available to every home and business on the grid in rural Vermont, infrastructure that is essential to social and economic well-being,” said Board Chair F. X. Flinn. “Investors have shown their appreciation for the work we are doing by paying a premium for our existing debt and competing for our new debt. That said, we will continue to pursue the new grant funding aggressively as we go all out to complete the network.”
Federal money coming to help health care sector
Many Vermont health care providers are seeing an influx of federal cash to help weather the pandemic.
This week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began distributing nearly $46 million to 143 of Vermont’s rural medical providers and suppliers serving Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Medicare beneficiaries.
Awarded under the American Rescue Plan, this funding will provide much-needed relief for Vermont’s rural health care providers, who have struggled under the financial and operational challenges of the pandemic, according to a press release. Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders and Congressman Peter Welch played a key role in securing this funding for Vermont, the announcement said.
This money is part of $7.5 billion in American Rescue Plan Rural payments being distributed nationwide. For more information about the funding, click here.
— Gareth Henderson
