ISLAND POND, VT — U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Chair of the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development and Energy, today joined NEK Broadband, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development officials, broadband advocates, customers, workers, and State and local leaders to announce that NEK Broadband was just awarded $2.8 million through the USDA’s Community Connect Grant program. The fiber infrastructure project funded by this program will help provide high-speed internet to the residents of Groton. Including this funding, USDA Rural Development has recently invested more than $20.5 million in connectivity projects throughout Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom through NEK Broadband.
Before the press conference, NEK Broadband taught Senator Welch and USDA RD State Director Sarah Waring how to splice broadband fiber.
“With the help of the USDA RD and this federal funding from the Biden-Harris Administration, NEK Broadband is meeting the challenge and building out the broadband that every rural community deserves and needs. I am thrilled to celebrate more than $20 million total in USDA grants, including new funding through the Community Connect grant program,” said Senator Peter Welch. “To get this fiber to the barn at the end of the dirt road requires overcoming so many practical challenges—and that takes continuity, that takes confidence, competence, collaboration, and cooperation. Every day brings new problems to solve, and they’re solving them every day to provide their neighbors with high-speed, reliable internet. I’ll keep fighting in the Senate for more broadband funding and will keep advocating for the passage of my bipartisan bill to improve the ReConnect program and speed broadband deployment.”
“This Community Connect grant is special because of the way in which residents and town officials in Groton stepped up to find solutions in coordination with regional, state, and federal resources to contribute to NEK Broadband’s mission to build public infrastructure and help bring service to the unserved in over 70 towns in northeastern and central Vermont,” said Christa Shute, Executive Director, NEK Community Broadband. “With the assistance of this grant from USDA, NEK Community Broadband dba NEKCV takes another step forward in our digital equity program by staffing and equipping three community centers in Groton and Ryegate that will help provide opportunities for the residents to access high speed internet during days, evenings, and weekends, while providing training, teaching and resources to build digital literacy.”
View photos and video from the event below:
“Among the many things we learned over the last few years, is that having reliable online access should be seen as a human right for everyone—especially those living in our remotest rural communities,” said Sarah Waring, USDA Rural Development State Director for Vermont and New Hampshire. “Securing important goods and services, and simply being connected to friends and family, can no longer be a hit-or-miss proposition that depends on your area code. We all know the stories of kids at home who can’t access school assignments, or small businesses who can’t make online sales, or the inadequate delivery of telemedicine where there’s no high-speed internet access. That’s why I am so proud that the Biden-Harris Administration continues to send a clear and resounding message to our neighbors in this remote corner of our state: we’re here, with your local providers, working hard to get you connected.”
“The Community Connect Grant will transform the ability of our residents and area organizations to access & leverage the enormous potential of the Internet for jobs, education, healthcare, public safety, and community development,” said Michael Gaiss, Groton’s primary representative on the Governing Board of NEK Broadband. “The impact on our town and region will be felt for years to come. Our grateful thanks and appreciation to the USDA for this opportunity.”
Including today’s funding, USDA RD has invested $20,501,567 in Northeast Kingdom connectivity projects through NEK Broadband, a nonprofit organization known as a Communication Union District (CUD). In August, NEK Broadband and CVFiber, a CUD serving towns in Central Vermont, merged to form NEKCV. In May 2023, USDA obligated more than $17 million in broadband funding through the ReConnect Grant Program. The same month, Senator Welch convened a hearing on rural broadband access featuring testimony from Christa Shute. In August 2021, NEK Broadband received a $190,380 Rural Business Development Grant to extend the fiber network into western Concord and the town of Waterford.
As Chair of the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development and Energy, Senator Welch introduced the bipartisan ReConnecting Rural America Act, which would codify and clarify components of USDA’s ReConnect Loan and Grant Program and, in so doing, reduce red tape, and speed broadband deployment. The ReConnect Program plays a central role in expanding access to high-speed broadband in rural America. The bipartisan bill was included in the Senate’s draft Farm Bill, the Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act.
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MEDIA FILES – B-Roll and additional photos:
