White House Awards $150 Million To Issuers for Broadband Projects

More than $150 million of federal broadband grants were awarded Friday to governmental, publicly owned or bond-issuing nonprofit organizations.

The White House announced a total of 66 recipients receiving more than $795 million of grants and loans authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to help develop broadband access in “some of the nation’s hardest-hit communities,” and several bond issuers were among them.

The winners include the Arizona Office of Economic Recovery, the District of Columbia, the Iowa Health System, the University of New Hampshire, the Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs, Clackamas and Crook counties in Oregon, Philadelphia, Thomas Edison State College, the Vermont Telecommunications Authority, and the Bristol, Va., Utilities Board.

Municipal bond-related entities made up exactly one-sixth of the total grantees, with the largest of their grants going to a public university system, a telecommunications agency and utilities board, a city government, and a nonprofit health care system.

New Hampshire University was awarded $44.5 million, the largest grant in the public and nonprofit group, which the system said it plans to use to create a “tech corridor” in the state.

The Vermont telecommunications agency won a $33.4 million grant to build a 790-mile fiber network across the state. The authority recently planned to use at least $16 million of revenue bonds to finance the network, including $6 million for towers and $10 million for the fiber-optic network, according to its records.

The Bristol Utilities Board plans to build its own fiber optic network, with a $22.7 million grant. That network will stretch 400 miles through southwestern Virginia, according to the White House.

The District of Columbia received two awards totaling $19.1 million. The largest grant, $17.5 million, will provide broadband connections to about 190 community-centered locations, mostly in the city’s economically distressed areas, and will generally improve broadband service in the city. The smaller grant, $1.6 million, will be used to upgrade or add more than 1,000 new workstations at 24 public libraries, two recreation centers, three public schools, and a community college library.

The Iowa Health System received a $17.7 million grant to upgrade and improve its existing network, which connects more than 200 health care facilities, and to generally improve broadband access in the area and state. The system had long-term debt of about $695 million of hospital facility revenue bonds in December, according to its financial records.

Clackamas County won a $7.8 million grant to help bring high-speed Internet to the northwestern part of the state. Crook County received $3.9 million to help it construct a computer learning center with 65 workstations. Some of the funds will go toward development of a mobile educational facility.

Philadelphia received $6.4 million to help develop 75 public computer centers in all but the eastern part of the city.

About $5 million was awarded to Thomas Edison State College in New Jersey, to add computers or upgrade connectivity at about 125 libraries. The school also will use the funding to “provide job search assistance and workforce development programs at 365 libraries across the state,” according to the White House.

The Arizona Office of Economic Recovery was awarded a $1.6 million grant to expand computer centers at 28 state and tribal libraries, and to provide virtual workstations at 200 places in Arizona.

Finally, the Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs will use an $806,000 grant to help fund the installation of more than 250 workstations, and to improve training services at more than 30 libraries and other computer-access hubs in 15 counties.

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Washington
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