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

Grants unveiled for health, dairy sectors

Vermont’s health care and dairy sectors are next in line to see pandemic-related relief grants become available this week. Two new programs for housing aid launched on Monday. 

Applications open Friday with about $275 million for the health care sector and $25 million for dairy operations. This funding, backed by federal aid dollars, was approved by the Legislature in a series of relief bills last month.

While state officials on Tuesday acknowledged there’s much more to do to help these essential sectors, they hoped this funding would help ease the towering financial pressures of the pandemic. 

Mike Smith, Vermont’s health and human services secretary, said, though the state provided some early assistance to this sector, much more is needed to ensure health providers and service organizations stay afloat during and after the crisis. He also noted the health sector’s vast economic impact. 

“Health care spending in Vermont constitutes roughly 20 percent of Vermont’s gross state product,” Smith said at Tuesday’s press briefing with Gov. Phil Scott. 

Smith also noted his team worked hard to make the grants program inclusive. 

“We intentionally designed the application process to support providers and organizations of every size and type to ensure equity in the process and to encourage all eligible providers to seek funding,” he said. 

Once it opens Friday, applicants will have four weeks to complete the process, and grants will be awarded only after all applications have been reviewed. Applications to this needs-based program will be accepted until Aug. 15, for grants covering pandemic-related expenses incurred between March 1 and June 15. Health providers and organizations are encouraged to sign up to receive an email notification once the process begins and to receive updates. 

“If providers are not certain they are eligible, we want them to apply anyway,” Smith said. A webinar about the grant process is set for Monday at 6 p.m. 

Smith said a second round of applications will begin in October, for pandemic-related expenses incurred between June 16 and Sept. 30. 

Tuesday’s briefing also focused on dairy, another essential sector hit hard by the pandemic. Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts described the impact on dairy farmers, cheesemakers and value-added businesses.

“When the country shut down, those small businesses that rely on restaurants, colleges, schools and institutions for a paycheck, they were lost,” Tebbetts said. “Income dropped, expenses increased for many.” 

Of the $25 million package, $21.2 is available for family farms, and $3.8 million is allocated for dairy processors, including those who make cheese, yogurt and ice cream, and bottle milk. The online application process launches at noon Friday, and all application forms must be received by Oct. 1. To be eligible, the applying business must have been in operation as of March 1, and all losses and costs must have occurred since March 1 and be pandemic-related. 

Grants will be sent out two to three weeks after an application’s approval, Tebbetts said. The application form is at agriculture.vermont.gov, or applicants may email agrcovidresponse@vermont.gov or call 802-828-2430. 

Tebbetts also said a $5 million relief program for non-dairy farmers is in the works, and producers, farmers markets and slaughterhouses will be included. Grants from working lands programs and assistance for fairs and field days groups will be announced in the coming days.

“Farmers are essential to Vermont's future,” Tebbetts said. “They provide Vermont, New England, New York and the nation fresh, wholesome food that is needed now more than ever.”

— Gareth Henderson