In a statement released on Thursday, the Lewis County Public Utility District (PUD) announced it had been awarded $750,000 in grant funds from the Washington State Broadband Office (WSBO) for its project to bring broadband to the Boistfort Valley and Rainbow Falls State Park.
The project was recently started due to a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Community Connect Program as well as $502,862 from the Washington State Public Works Board’s Broadband Program.
“The Washington State Broadband Office is pleased to be able to provide funding to Lewis County PUD to extend broadband service to unserved areas of county,” said Mark Vasconi, director of the Washington State Broadband Office. “This effort has taken the collective participation and commitment of the PUD, USDA and the Broadband Office. It’s this type of joint participation that is necessary to close the digital divide so that broadband service is available to each household and business in Lewis County and across Washington.”
Due to rising costs since the original grant was awarded, project costs have increased to about $4.2 million. The WSBO allowed the PUD to apply for 25% of maximum project funding or $750,000.
“The Washington State Broadband Office has funds to match federal grant obligations to help bring more federal money into the state,” said PUD Information Systems and Telecommunications Manager Jeff Baine. “We thought outside the box since we had already applied and received the grant. Our ask was due to the cost of inflation and the contract was signed almost two years after we were awarded the grant.”
To avoid future issues with inflation, the current grant applications are being built with contingencies to try and prevent issues with material and labor price increases.
The project is part of the Digital Access To All (DATA) plan to construct a publicly owned, open access, rural broadband network. The DATA plan includes 17 service zones encompassing all of Lewis County and would serve about 29,000 locations.
The USDA grant will allow construction of the broadband infrastructure from Chehalis to the Boistfort Valley, providing a backbone network that will give access to nearly 1,200 residences. The support received from the Washington State Public Works Board will allow the network to extend further west toward Pe Ell and to Rainbow Falls State Park. Because of the funds received from those agencies, members of two western Lewis County communities will soon have access to high speed internet in their homes.
“We know many other communities in Lewis County still need access to broadband, and we’re committed to acquiring the grant funds to make digital access to all a reality," Baine added.
